THE CHAMPIONSHIPS

July 10, 2024

Taylor Fritz

Press Conference

L. MUSETTI/T. Fritz

3-6, 7-6, 6-2, 3-6, 6-1

THE MODERATOR: Taylor, battle out there. Wasn't to be today. Give us your thoughts.

TAYLOR FRITZ: Yeah, I think it was a tough match. He played well on some really big points. I don't know. I didn't serve as well as I probably needed to or I guess as well as I have been.

Again, it was pretty windy today, so I felt like it was tough to kind of get that, like, rhythm or timing or feel because it would constantly change every time I switched sides.

He played especially well in the fifth set.

Q. How different does this quarterfinal loss feel to the one from two years ago?

TAYLOR FRITZ: I don't know. I think it might sound strange, but I think the one two years ago hurt even more because I was within points of winning.

I think, I don't know, that one might have hurt more, but I think this one is a bit more -- I'm probably a bit more disappointed maybe.

Q. Your previous match was quite long, five sets. Did you feel any fatigue from that today?

TAYLOR FRITZ: I wouldn't say so. It was five. It was a lot of serving realistically. My body yesterday and today, pulling up after the five-setter, I felt like not too bad at all. I was actually pretty surprised with how I wasn't really too sore or anything.

I don't think that was really that big of a factor. Musetti, he also played some long matches this tournament. I don't think I was in any worse, I guess, physical shape than he was.

Q. Nothing in your legs that affected your serve?

TAYLOR FRITZ: No, I don't think so. The biggest thing with the serve, it was just really windy. Like, the second and the third set especially it was really windy in there.

Q. He seemed to be playing with a great deal of variety. Was that apparent in the first set? As it wore on, what does it do to you as player on the other side?

TAYLOR FRITZ: I mean, it's a big difference in terms of how it's going to feel, as well, when I played Sascha with the roof closed. The conditions are so nice. There's no wind. You always know where the ball's going to be. You get in such a good rhythm.

Now I'm playing someone who's slicing and moving the ball around with also the wind as well. It's tough. I felt like probably the biggest thing was when I'm playing someone that plays like him, I really need to be able to set up and be able to generate power, like really pinpoint where I want to hit the shot. I have to be very accurate because you're not going to be able to hit the ball as hard off of the dead slices.

It's important to be able to be accurate. It was just very tough to do, to be the one that's trying to, like, attack and place the ball when I'm getting these slices that are just moving all around before I hit them. I'm always moving my feet. I feel like I have to be so much more handsy with the ball.

I just made so many mistakes in mostly the third set because I just felt like it took a lot to finish the point. I think it's favoring to the person that wants to run and chip when it's a bit windy and working against the person that's trying to go big and pick out spots. He did what he was doing really well.

Q. There was a lot of off-court noise in the aftermath of your last match. Was that distracting at all, or did you just block it out?

TAYLOR FRITZ: I just blocked it out. When it gets deep into a tournament like this, I just try to stay off social media. Like, also there's too many people texting you and all that stuff anyways. I just kind of put the phone down.

Yeah, that's about it.

Q. What did you think when you won the first set? You had won 6-3, and you saved four break points. Suddenly you lose twice your serve. Were you surprised that he was able to react that way, or it was you that didn't play as you expected?

TAYLOR FRITZ: I mean, how I kind of saw it was towards the end of the fourth I feel like the wind died down a little bit. I felt like I started hitting my spots on my serve a little bit better.

I felt like I could be a little more aggressive from the baseline and not feel like I was going to miss every third or fourth shot I hit.

So I broke him. I felt like when I was getting chances to break him is when I could attack his second serve, hit the ball hard, deep through the middle, kind of work off of that.

I guess my plan going into the fifth, how I turned it around in the fourth, was it's not going to be easy to hold my serve because it hasn't been all day today. He's done a great job chipping my return back, playing defense and chipping, making it tough for me to finish points and get free points on my serve.

I knew it was going to be tough to hold, but I still trusted that I could get it done and hold serve. My plan was to try to fight through my serve games like I did in the fourth set and then get that opportunity when he maybe plays a serve game where he misses some first serves. I can take advantage of the second serve, get a break.

That was kind of what I felt like my plan was. He played a really unbelievable point to break me to start the fifth. Missed some shots maybe I shouldn't have missed. But, yeah, I wasn't too surprised that he I guess broke me in the fifth. I just kind of backed myself to grind through some of those games.

Q. Will this spark any sort of assessment big picture, or do you consider it more of a one-off type of thing given the disappointment you expressed earlier?

TAYLOR FRITZ: Look, I think the more times I'm just putting myself in situations deep in slams, I'm going to get more comfortable, and I'm going to just -- I mean, I am ready to win and go further.

The more I put myself in these situations, the easier it will get. I think I played fine today. The most nervy I was honestly was in the first set surprisingly. After that I felt not so nervy.

Yeah, I don't know. I think I've been playing well, kind of like I'm on a swing now. So I'm going to go home and not do what I normally do. Just like take seven days off and do nothing and then have to relearn how to play again. I'm pretty motivated to stay on top of things right now and kind of keep the momentum going.

I think I'm playing really solid tennis.

Q. How much do you think the Olympics will help you being able to flush this out of your system, being in a totally different type of tennis environment?

TAYLOR FRITZ: I think the Olympics will be just like a fun experience. I'm slightly worried about how the clay is going to affect me. I don't know how much people know about it, but my injury at the French Open, it was probably worse than I made it seem. I was kind of playing through it. In my match with Casper, it just really lit up like super bad to where I couldn't really -- it got really hard to slide.

It was bothering me quite a bit when I went home. I skipped the first week on grass, which I never do. I think playing in Queen's was pushing it a bit.

It was much better because on grass I'm not sliding. It's more of an injury that really bothers me when I'm sliding, separating my legs a lot.

I'm going to immediately go back to PT and try to do as much cramming as possible, and hopefully I can feel good to be sliding on clay again. I'm am slightly worried about how that is going to affect my body.

Q. Do you have the name of that injury?

TAYLOR FRITZ: I think the best way to put it is athletic pubalgia, I believe. I could be saying it completely wrong (smiling).