THE CHAMPIONSHIPS

July 5, 2023

Taylor Fritz

Press Conference

T. FRITZ/Y. Hanfmann

6-4, 2-6, 4-6, 7-5, 6-3

THE MODERATOR: Your initial thoughts on today's match, if you would.

TAYLOR FRITZ: Yeah, I mean, it was really tough. I mean, today I went out and felt really good, played well. Obviously it was only four games that we played, but, I mean, the match on Monday was really tough. It was extremely windy, changing directions. The wind, like every, you know, 10, 20 seconds, I never had a clue where the ball was going to end up, where it was going to be. It was extremely tough for me to play.

I felt like he was crushing the ball, hitting, you know, amazing shots in the wind. It didn't even really make sense to me how he was doing it.

Luckily on Monday in the fourth set I felt like the wind kind of died down there towards the end and I started to play much better tennis, serve better, kind of put myself in a good position to come back today and have a good shot at winning.

THE MODERATOR: Questions.

Q. On the weirdness scale, where does that match sort of rank with other matches you have played, three days, changing weather, series of rain delays, sitting around today with rain, not sure when you're going to get out? What can you compare it to experience-wise?

TAYLOR FRITZ: I mean, nothing. I have never had to take two days in between. I've had to come back and finish the match the next day.

Yeah, it's tough to kind of just be sitting on that, thinking about it for like two days. You know, you're potentially 15 minutes left in a match at the very end of it, and for it to be a Grand Slam, fifth set, it kind of adds to it.

Yeah, it's tough to kind of just be sitting on that for two days.

Q. Did you talk about it with your girlfriend or anybody else?

TAYLOR FRITZ: Of course. I talked about it with everyone. It's all that's obviously really been on my mind for the last two days. But the good news is when I was thinking about it, talking about it, I just felt, I felt really confident about, like, that I was going to go out and I was going to win the match.

Q. Besides talking about it, how did you spend all that time that you had when you weren't playing?

TAYLOR FRITZ: Well, I mean, I had to be on-site because the rain delays, you never knew when I was going to be on.

So I spent most of the time like sitting on the bench near my locker in the locker room, just like on my phone, like YouTube videos, whatever. Just killing time.

Q. Have you ever had anything comparable at any point in your tennis life where you have had so much time to kill but you couldn't go anyplace?

TAYLOR FRITZ: Yeah, it's happened before. There is lots of tournaments where there is rain delays where you're at the site all day. You know, you're at the courts for eight hours. It's happened before.

Q. You talked about how it was tough to hang in there over all this time. Everyone sees your big shots, but talk about the mental side of your life and your game. Do you think that's a real strength of yours? People talk about your high tennis IQ. Are you proud of that? Do you think you have grown in recent years?

TAYLOR FRITZ: I mean, I'm super proud of when people, I guess, mention or talk about the tennis IQ part. That's something I take a lot of pride in, I guess, being able to break down people's games, just having an understanding of the game, of people's, you know, tennis-ese, what to do, stuff like that.

Sometimes it's not the easiest for myself to implement, like I guess Monday when it's so windy and I'm just trying to, like literally just trying to hit the ball with my racquet and put it in the court.

I don't think it's necessarily grown too much over the years, but I have gained a lot of experience. I think that, you know, all the experience I have definitely helps me stay confident and not get too, I guess, in my head over these two days. It's as simple as just coming back and holding serve twice and breaking serve once.

Q. Seems like out there it's a chess match, and when you're trying to figure out an opponent, when you're pretty close to a breakthrough or when you get to it, can you express what goes through your mind? Is that something you can share with us?

TAYLOR FRITZ: Yeah, I mean, it's not -- I don't know if it's as complicated as we are making it sound like. A person always will show their tendencies, their strengths, weaknesses, the most that will shine through the most in pressure situations.

That's really when I can count on someone doing something that I know they love to do or someone, you know, maybe messing up a shot that's their weakness, you can always see, always see someone's strengths and weaknesses when you're paying attention to, you know, high pressure point.

Q. Talking about pride, what does it mean to you being the best American tennis player at this particular moment? What do you expect from this Wimbledon edition? What's your target?

TAYLOR FRITZ: Yeah, I mean, it's an honor to be the top American. It's something that I would have been extremely pumped about if you told me a long time ago, told me when I was young, then I probably wouldn't have believed it either.

So it's awesome. It's great. Obviously I want to take it further, and be higher ranked. We also have a lot of very good American players that are chasing me and trying to take the spot away from me. So, you know, I just have to keep competing, keep performing well.

For this year's Wimbledon, I just want to take it one match at a time. Obviously I made it to the quarterfinals last year, so I know for sure that I'm capable of doing that. I'd love to get to that point and then see how much further I can go from there. But, you know, no specific round or anything I have in mind. I just want to take it one match at a time.

Q. You have been around now for long enough. You have experienced playing at a lower level and obviously now at a top-10 level. What are the best perks that come out of suddenly hitting that top-10 point, particularly at a tournament like here or even better at the US Open, which is your home championship? Do you get better court placement or do you get better practice time or what kinds of things? How is it different?

TAYLOR FRITZ: I'd say I notice the biggest difference, to be honest, at the smaller tournaments like the 250s where I will be the 1 seed or the 2 seed. I feel like that's when you get slightly better treatment because I'm always going to be on center court, I'm probably not going to be first on. My accommodations might be a little bit nicer. Stuff like that.

At a slam, being seeded, you probably get more time on the match courts if you're playing with another seeded player. The seeded locker room, it's nice, it's not so crowded. Stuff like that.

Little things that, no, they definitely help and they definitely make a difference, and I think it would be annoying to go back to how things used to be kind of practicing like off-site at some slams and just grinding to get like certain times on court. You know, it's definitely an advantage to the seeded players.

Q. Is it a psychological difference or like a physical, something tangible about it?

TAYLOR FRITZ: I mean, it helps, definitely helps when you're getting more time on match courts as opposed to, like let's say the French Open or something, you know, actually practicing on-site and not having to practice at the off-site locations, which a lot of players have to do, same with the Australian Open which I have done.

Yeah, I think there are slight advantages, but I also believe that the players that get the advantages have earned them.

Q. You mentioned before that the conditions may be making it a little bit more difficult and you weren't quite sure where some of his shots were coming through. What kind of adjustments do you make to your game? Does it kind of prevent you from like, I don't know, anticipating what your opponent is going to do in those situations?

TAYLOR FRITZ: I mean, there is nothing I really could do, to be honest. I think if the extremely windy conditions that were in the second and third set kept up, and he kept playing the way he was playing in those conditions, then I don't think there is any way I win the match, to be honest.

I think he was, like I said, he was just like crushing the ball, which I didn't understand how it was possible. Because, you know, if the wind is moving in one direction, it's constant, then okay, I can adjust for that. I can know that the ball, where it's going to be. I can take the wind into account. But when I have no clue where the wind is blowing because it's changing directions all the time and it's just gusty and swirling, it's like how am I even supposed to know where to set up for the shot.

It's not like I was getting caught off guard by what he was doing. It's more like he'd hit shots and I couldn't get my feet set or be prepared for the ball, and I couldn't time it properly. Timing is a huge part of my game, and, you know, for two sets I'm genuinely just like trying to make balls, and he's somehow able to, you know, rip balls and hit great shots. It's really frustrating for me.

All I really could do was stay with it, and I'm fortunate that, you know, in the fourth set that the wind loosened up a bit and allowed me to play much more like normal tennis.