US OPEN

September 7, 2024

Taylor Fritz

Press Conference

T. FRITZ/F. Tiafoe

4-6, 7-5, 4-6, 6-4, 6-1

THE MODERATOR: Taylor, if you would, your thoughts on the win.

TAYLOR FRITZ: Yeah, I mean, it was a crazy match. I think a lot of it was just about handling the moment and the pressure. He was playing at a very high level, I felt like, in the third and fourth sets.

It was really about just staying in it and kind of just withstanding how much pressure he was putting on me from the baseline with how he was, I mean, just either pulling me off the court on every shot or taking the ball super early, changing directions, which is, like, it's so hard to do what he was doing just consistently. It was really just about trying to withstand it for as long as I could, keep holding serve and apply the scoreboard pressure and just hope that at a certain point that the errors are going to come a little more, I'm going to get a little more looks to attack and be aggressive.

It got to that point in the end, and I finally started to get some mistakes from him, and some balls that I could, you know, look to be a little more aggressive on.

THE MODERATOR: Questions.

Q. Congratulations, Taylor. When you talk about wanting to stay steady and when you're out there realizing that Frances is starting to make those mistakes and you have an opportunity, was it difficult at that moment for you even though you have been steady the whole time to stay calm?

TAYLOR FRITZ: Yeah, it was interesting. So I think we both came out, I think we both came out pretty tight. I think he actually might have came out a little more tight than me, but he calmed down quicker than I did.

So I stayed a little tight for a little longer, but he was able to kind of rebound after the break and then take the first. That was really tough, I guess, mentally for me, to kind of swallow that I was up a break, like, I kind of just gave the set away off of my mistakes and, like, me being nervous. The second set served well, was able to consolidate a break. Third set played a really bad game to start. That was it.

Then when he started making those mistakes in the end of the fourth to let me win the fourth set, it actually probably motivated me a little more, because I was waiting the whole third and fourth set, the whole fourth set especially, I was just waiting, when's it going to come, when's it going to come. I'm drilling balls to his forehand, he's drilling them back, whipping me off the court, changing direction. It's kind of what I was waiting for.

And then once he maybe started making some mistakes, started lifting the ball a little bit more, allowing me to attack more, if anything, it calmed me down, I think, because I just felt like now I had some breathing room and it was more in my hands, I guess.

Q. Your emotion on the court afterward, what were you thinking in that moment? What were you feeling?

TAYLOR FRITZ: Yeah, I think I hadn't really, like, fully, I guess, registered. It hit me when Banks said the thing about how I'm in the finals and the crowd was cheering. It's just kind of like how I am, I'm more of an emotional person when I'm happy. When I'm really happy I cry at happy endings of movies and like not at sad stuff. That's kind of just how I am.

So it's, yeah, it's just joy, like, the crowd cheering and kind of that realization, like wow, I'm in, like, the finals of the US Open. It's such a lifelong, I guess, dream come true, something I've worked my whole life for to be in this situation. I think just kind of like realizing that got me a little bit choked up.

Q. Can you just discuss why you're confident that you have a shot on Sunday to bring this home for you.

TAYLOR FRITZ: I've always enjoyed playing him. To be honest, I don't think that I'm gonna be put in a more, like, stressful situation than I was today than playing in a final. I think today was much more stressful than me playing the final. I just feel good.

I have a feeling I'm going to come out and play really well and win. When I play good tennis, I think that level is good enough to win.

Q. Can you talk about the way you said you were overwhelmed and you talked about how well Frances was playing and how you had to manage it and had to apply scoreboard pressure. But it was a seriously incredible effort by you to be able to do that, given the stakes. How were you able to do it and do you think that's been an integral part of who you are as a tennis player all along?

TAYLOR FRITZ: Yeah, I think one thing that's never been in doubt throughout my tennis career, like, whether I'm playing awful or hitting one side bad or whatever the situation could be throughout my career of ups and downs, I think one thing that's never been in question is just like my heart and how I'm always going to compete no matter what.

What I just kept telling myself was just to keep fighting and to keep working, and if I don't give it just, you know, everything I have and just lock in as much as I possibly can, I'm gonna regret it forever if I don't take... It's easy in that moment to just switch off and not, I guess, not want to.

Yeah, I just told myself I'm gonna always regret it if I just don't give it everything I have to stay in, and it was big. I had to stay with him in some of those really long, crazy rallies, because I wanted to show him that I wasn't going to go away, that I was feeling fit and I was going to keep running for everything and fighting for every point.

You know, I think that itself made a big difference for me.

Q. Can you explain what you meant when you said a moment ago that you think tonight was more stressful than Sunday might be. That was also part of when you were talking about Sinner and enjoying that matchup. If you could go into a little bit how or why that's the case.

TAYLOR FRITZ: Yeah, I mean, it's two Americans to make it to the final. Both of us want to be the guy to make it to the final.

I had a 6 and 1 head-to-head leading into it. I'm not thinking, I'm not going into this thinking that I'm the favorite, because everything's totally different when you're playing a match like this. He's been playing unbelievable all US Open. He's been playing in the night match slot on Ashe every single match.

Like, I'm not thinking I'm the favorite, but it's tough to go in as, like, the record 6 to 1, this is to make a US Open final, whoever wins it is the American that made it to the final. I mean, it's a stressful situation to be in.

It's different from playing the World No. 1 who you're probably not going to be the favorite against. But I think I've always played well against Jannik. I think we're 1 and 1. It's been a while since we played but last time he got me in three at Indian Wells. I don't know, he strikes, he hits the ball big, he's like a very strong ball striker, but I feel like I always hit the ball really nice off of his ball.

Yeah, I don't know, I think I typically play well against him.

Q. You're still close to Frances on the court, passing him at changeovers. Before he cracked there, and he had said his body was cramping, suffering from nerves, do you sense anything in his body language, anything you're picking up that says, I think there's something different here, I think he's wilting a little bit?

TAYLOR FRITZ: To be honest, no. He did an incredibly good job of not showing me, to be honest.

We played that one extremely long rally and I was trying my best to not show I was pretty gassed after that point. For me I feel like it's more like I'm gassed for, like, 30 seconds to, like, a minute I feel like I can't stand up but then once I can go to the changeover, sit down and relax for a minute, then I feel like I'm totally fine.

But in that moment when I went over to the towel box, I bent over, I didn't want to bend over, I had to, I looked over at him and he didn't go hands to knees or anything like that. I was, like, okay, I know I feel awful, he has to feel a little bit tired (laughter). But he did a good job of making me believe that I guess he wasn't feeling any worse than I was.

I think the only thing that I thought was funny, or that I noticed very early on in the match, I hit like a really insane volley, for me, and typically if I were to do something like that, Frances would be, like, laughing, and I would look, he loves to laugh when I hit a good volley, because, I mean, my volleys aren't great and he always overexaggerates how bad it is. I looked over at him expecting him to be smiling at me, and he was, like, dead serious. I was, like, okay, he's really serious, really locked into this one, because normally he'd be joking about something like that.

Q. What do you think your success and Frances' until tonight and what the rest of the Americans have done here means? What do you think Sunday might mean for men's tennis after all these years?

TAYLOR FRITZ: I think regardless of the result, I think it gives hope and shows that we're knocking on the door of winning a slam, and we have this generation, this group of guys where there's, like, four or five of us that are, like, actually at this level.

I mean, it shows that we're all moving in the right direction. I think that whenever one of us does something, the others follow, the others get belief from it. Yeah, I think this is just the start for all of us.

Q. Taylor, you have been the leader of this particular group of guys for so long now. From the outside, it's kind of always felt like really you were supposed to be the first guy to get to this breakthrough. I just wondered if you ever saw it that way or did you have that kind of belief all along? I know you're not one to say that you were the head of the group, but I imagine you had some belief that you were supposed to be the guy.

TAYLOR FRITZ: I don't know if I, like -- I mean, I wanted it. I wanted to be the guy. That's what all of us want to be. I wouldn't say I felt like I was entitled to it.

I just really wanted. Just obviously I have been the highest-ranked for a while, I was able to win Indian Wells, and then I was, like, the only one that didn't have a slam semifinal, so I really wanted that. But, no, I don't think I felt like it needed to be me or like had to be me. I just, I don't know, I just really wanted to have success at slams and to get to this point. Yeah, I don't know.

I think it's just a great feeling to be here and, you know, the match tonight could have gone either way and it could have easily been Frances in the final, and if it was, I would have been super happy for him.