MUTUA MADRID OPEN

May 3, 2024

Taylor Fritz

Press Conference

A. RUBLEV/T. Fritz

6-4, 6-3

THE MODERATOR: Questions.

Q. Today Rublev too strong? But your game suits Madrid? With your serve you can do better than semis, or is it enough for next weeks?

TAYLOR FRITZ: No, I mean, obviously I could have played a lot better today. I think a lot of credit to Andrey. He served really well. Made lots of first serves. Good spots, too. He pulled me off the court and then kind of just go open court the next ball.

I don't know. I think, yeah, playing in Madrid suits my game well, but I also think that my game feels even better when I was playing on, I guess, Arantxa Sanchez and Stadium 3. I feel for sure it's faster in there, it's bouncing higher in there. Center court is definitely slower and just pretty slippery, as well, I thought.

Q. You played a great tournament. Next tournament, Rome. Alcaraz, Sinner, Medvedev are in doubt. Do you think you could be a favorite in Rome?

TAYLOR FRITZ: I wouldn't go as far to say I'm a favorite to, like, win the tournament, but I think I have been playing well on clay.

Yeah, I think I'm a dangerous person in the draw, and there is obviously potential for me to go deep. I just need to keep playing well.

Q. How have you found the balance of adjusting your game to clay, like, your attacking game style to clay versus playing the way that you play on other surfaces? Also, how have you adjusted your movement to clay over the years? What have you done to improve that?

TAYLOR FRITZ: Yeah, I think the main thing is just on other surfaces I'm going to play a lot closer to the baseline, which it's good for my backhand. I think generally I like having more time on my forehand.

On clay I don't mind playing further back. I can move much better on clay when I'm further back. I have more time to kind of get going.

But, yeah, I think I have just kind of found things that worked for me on clay, giving myself more time with my forehand, trying to dictate points more with my forehand. I think that's probably just been the biggest change throughout the years.

I think on clay sometimes I can find myself getting a little too close to the baseline, and then it gets really tough to play defense, which on a hard court I don't mind.

Q. Do you have some regrets for the match of this afternoon?

TAYLOR FRITZ: I mean, I wish I would have served a lot better. I have been serving well all week. Yeah, I didn't serve well. I just felt very, like I said, I felt like the court was -- I mean, I know for a fact that there is not as much clay on center than all the other courts.

I can literally, when I'm taking little steps, I can hear my feet squeaking because it's hitting the hard surface underneath the clay. I felt every time I was kind of trying to take an explosive step, which was a lot because he was pulling me so far off the court with his serve, I wanted to take some pretty aggressive steps to get back into the court, I was just slipping a lot.

So I felt very -- I mean, it's normally pretty awkward when I'm moving, but I felt even more awkward. I felt extra awkward moving today. I felt like I was getting to a lot of balls just a little late or off balance, and it just wasn't flowing for me.

But like I said, he served very well and I didn't serve so well. So it's, you know, it's something I can control.

Q. With Michael Russell, I don't know if he's very known in Europe, but he's quite known for his clay court ability. You go with him because you don't travel with so many people as other players, or your group.

TAYLOR FRITZ: Yeah, I mean, he's just my -- I mean, he's just my coach regardless of the surface, but yeah, I don't know. He had some solid clay results in his career, but I don't think he would say he was a clay court specialist if you asked him. But it's, I don't know, him and I also, we play a lot different (smiling).

Q. (Off mic.)

TAYLOR FRITZ: Last year I felt like the ball was really moving even more than this year.