AUSTRALIAN OPEN

January 18, 2025

Taylor Fritz

Press Conference

G. MONFILS/T. Fritz

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

THE MODERATOR: First of all, Taylor, this is not the result you were hoping for. Could you share with us what was what was most challenging for you on court today?

TAYLOR FRITZ: Yeah, it's a tough match. I think, I mean, it sucks to go out in the third round. The way it happened, I'm probably not going to lose too much sleep over, as someone who is like hypercritical of themselves normally. It's just a really good match from him.

He served incredible, mixed up his spots really well. I never could get a read on where he was going to serve on, like, a big point. Served very high percentage, hit good spots. When he didn't make his first serve, he was serving huge second serve sliders. Really tough for me to do anything on the second. Even if I knew where it was going, it was really hard to return, the way he was cutting it, hitting such a big slider second.

He was returning my serve really well even when I was mixing it up hitting spots while he was still returning it well. Yeah, once we were a couple balls in, into the ball change, and the balls were big, it was really tough to hurt him. He just got back everything.

I felt like I wasn't even hitting... I couldn't hurt him enough with my groundies to follow it into net. I felt like I wasn't getting him out of position at all. Just going, like, full blast trying to attack him. It seemed almost too easy for him to hurt me for how much I was struggling to hurt him.

He played really, really well. Not too much I could do.

THE MODERATOR: Questions, please.

Q. Was it different being in this tournament for you as the world No. 4 in any way? I know it's very soon after the match, but are there things you wish or you think you could have done differently today?

TAYLOR FRITZ: Yeah, I wouldn't say it's too different, just approaching this tournament from any other tournament. I think I did a really good job approaching this tournament, to be honest. I played great. I've been playing great. I played really well my first two rounds. I played well today.

Going back, it's very nitpicky I think when I look at, like -- it's just certain points where he hits a really big second serve on a big point. I just wish I made it, but I'm nitpicking a lot on certain things in the match.

Yeah, I mean, I played a bad game at -- not even a bad game. I played two bad points in a service game in the second set at 5-6 when I got broken. Outside of that, there wasn't much I think I did wrong, to be honest. Maybe some points in the tiebreaker I could have played a bit better. He still beat me 7-1 in the tiebreaker. There was a lot of points in the tiebreaker I just couldn't do anything about.

Yeah, it's just one of those matches that I just felt like it was really tough to hurt him, even just get him off balance enough to find a way in, even into net, to finish points. I felt like I couldn't hurt him enough to get into net.

Just seemed like he had a much easier time hurting me.

Q. You mentioned how you thought you played well today and how brilliant you played in your first two matches at this tournament. Are you confident if you can maintain the level that you showed that a major title could come in this season?

TAYLOR FRITZ: I'm going to have to play very well if I want to win a major title. I'm playing very good tennis. That's why I said I'm not going to let this one get to me too much because I feel like the way I'm playing, the way I played today, I would expect myself to win against a lot of people.

Yeah, he played really well. He's been playing really well. Yeah, I mean, I know what kind of things I need to work on. I need to keep working on, I guess, fitness and stuff. Not that I was extremely tired, but I'm not as fresh as, I guess, I was in the first set. That plays a part in me not being able to put the ball away because when I'm not fresh like I was in the first set, then I can't generate as much power when he's kind of slicing and not giving me pace to work with. Something I can work on.

It's tough to prepare for those situations where you're playing a three-plus hour match in heat against someone who gets every single ball back.

Q. Hearing you talk about how Gael played today, you know, getting everything back and with a lot on it. He's 38 years old. Did you have moments of looking at him and what he was doing, thinking how is this possible for a guy of this age?

TAYLOR FRITZ: I mean, not so much. I think I forget that he's 38 'cause obviously when I came on tour, he was still one of the young guys. I don't think I think of it like that.

No, I mean, I think there was times in the fourth where I had looks. I mean, it was very physical. Both of us were getting tired, but there was times where I felt like he was maybe starting to feel it a bit.

There was one game I had break chances in the fourth. I felt like he was starting to feel it a little bit, but he did a great job bailing himself out with big first serves, really big second serves under pressure. Yeah, I have to give credit. He played really well.

Q. Now that you've seen the level that Gael was playing today, what is your assessment of how far or how successful he can be in this tournament?

TAYLOR FRITZ: Yeah, I mean, if he's playing like that... Obviously he's come straight from winning a title, playing a whole tournament. He had a five-setter in the first round. Today's match was physical. It was hot.

If he can continue to play like how he played today for five sets, I think he's going to be tough for anybody to beat. Like I said, he's returning all my serves, even when I'm hitting really good serves. The way he's serving on top of that, plus how big he's serving his second serve, it's just really tough to play.

Q. A different question after a match. You come from a family of really good players. I was wondering, would you remember when you first beat your mom or your uncle?

TAYLOR FRITZ: I think I could start beating my mom around the age of like 14. I could beat my dad before that 'cause he's pretty old (smiling).

Q. Was it a big deal for you to beat your mum?

TAYLOR FRITZ: Not really. I think it was a big deal to beat her career-high ranking and say that I'm the best player in the family (smiling).