US OPEN

September 5, 2023

Taylor Fritz

Press Conference

N. DJOKOVIC/T. Fritz

6-1, 6-4, 6-4

THE MODERATOR: Taylor, obviously not the results that you were expecting. Could you just give us a little overview on the match and specifically the tournament run for you in general.

TAYLOR FRITZ: Yeah, thoughts on the match. More like I needed to do a lot better on my serve. I need to serve much better and not just give away so many loose points on my serve.

I feel like as far as returning goes, I can't actually ask for that much more. Forget about the first set, but the second and third, I was in a lot of return games. Got breaks both sets. Chances to get more than one break, like, you know, I can't ask for much more than that. If I could actually serve I think to the standards that I know I can serve to, then, you know, then maybe I could work with something, it would be a closer match.

Obviously Novak being Novak, he'll make me feel like I'm serving, you know, worse than I am, but, in other matches I wouldn't get, I guess, as punished for missing so many first serves. I can maybe get away with it, but with him, I have to serve better than 50%, and I have to hit my spots better. That's just how it is.

THE MODERATOR: Questions.

Q. What's your process after a big event like this in terms of sitting down with your team and sort of dissecting things? Do you go through the videos of your matches? Do you talk through all the results? I know you play a lot, probably more than other people. Do you take time to dissect things before you take the next steps and get out there again?

TAYLOR FRITZ: I mean, it's only been 30 minutes, but...

Q. I guess I'm talking about more the next week or something like that, how do you...

TAYLOR FRITZ: Well, the next week, I'm probably not going to play tennis for the next week. I hope when I come back in a week I'll remember how to serve.

Just digesting the match, like right now, I know I'll definitely have some things in mind that I need to work on that are kind of clear to me that I need to improve a bit. You know, once I get back on the court and have some time to, you know, not be in tournaments and practice a bit, I'll definitely start working on them.

Q. How much was the heat a factor there today?

TAYLOR FRITZ: I mean, it was definitely hot. Like, I feel like we played some, like, pretty physical, like, long points in the beginning of the match. After a couple, like, it hit me. I'd say it's more the humidity than anything. I don't feel like I'm ever bothered too much by the heat. I feel like it's just really humid, just feel like it just drains you.

Didn't help that they partially closed the roof with that, because I think that made it less hot but a lot more humid inside the stadium.

I don't think it was, like, awful. For me I felt like I was getting better as the match was going on, so...

Q. Once you kind of settled in, you had the second set, and then there was a stage in the third set where it looked like you had your opportunity. The crowd was behind you. I'm not asking you to sort of necessarily get in his head, but it seemed like he kind of got even more fired up the more the crowd got behind you.

TAYLOR FRITZ: What's the...

Q. I was asking when you're watching it, does it seem like -- obviously you love the support you were getting here in New York. Did it seem like he got more fired up the more the crowd got behind you?

TAYLOR FRITZ: I didn't think so. I didn't notice. I feel like, yeah, like you said, I had the chances in the third. I started playing some pretty good points, stringing some good points together, giving myself breakpoint opportunities. I was holding.

Yeah, I didn't take my chances. I didn't think that he played any of those points I guess exceptionally, raised his level. He was solid, and I didn't perform well enough on a lot of the big points.

Q. Mensik and Stricker, completely different opponents to him. You felt very confident about your serve and how you were feeling about that. Do you feel it was just in terms of you dealing with the placement or just the rhythm, you just didn't feel the rhythm about that? You talk about that Ashe crowd support, you gave a wink to them at the very least. Can you talk at least about that positive support from them?

TAYLOR FRITZ: Yeah, I only, you know, if I remember correctly, I feel like I wasn't too happy about my serve after the first couple of rounds. I feel like I said only in the second, third set of the Stricker match is when I started to feel a good rhythm on the serve.

Yeah, how I served, I feel like in the third set of that match, is how I need to serve if I want to give myself a chance to beat someone like Novak. It wasn't there at all. I thought I served awful. It sucks. Like, it's something that, like, everything feels good, and the serve is not going in.

Something I have to just get back and work on, because it's not something that I'm used to. My serve has always been, like, pretty, like, automatic for me and confident in it. Something kind of new this year that I have been struggling a bit with.

I guess the good news is that I'm returning serve much better. You know, I'm still having an overall good year, even though I'm probably serving the worst I have served, just because the other parts of my game are much better. It speaks to where I have improved elsewhere. But definitely need to, I guess, get that back to how I felt like I used to be.

And yeah, in the other matches I can afford to not serve so well because I can serve a second serve and they can hit the return, and I still like my chances winning the point. That's not something that you can do against Novak. I can't consistently expect to beat him in baseline rallies.

Q. Great season for you, Taylor. I think the aura that Novak carries, especially in the return game, do you think that you maybe put more pressure on yourself to have to serve so perfectly, or do you think you just didn't have a particularly good serve today regardless?

TAYLOR FRITZ: I think I might have done that in Cincinnati. Maybe in the first couple games when I came out I was trying to, like, add some speed on the flat serve. But definitely not in the second and the third set at all. I wasn't trying to, like -- I mean, I was just missing so many serves I just kind of told myself in the second and the third, just make the serve. Yeah, it wasn't working. It wasn't there.

I think if we look at my past matches with Novak, the one that I probably had the best chance in was in Turin, and I was serving well there.

It's not rocket science. Like, I'm not going to be able to beat him or hang with him when he just gets to return second serves all day or my first serves are just going to him. I need to serve well, I need to hit spots. I have served well against him in the past, Cincinnati. Today just not the case.