MIAMI OPEN PRESENTED BY ITAú

March 24, 2025

Taylor Fritz

Press Conference

T. FRITZ/D. Shapovalov

7-5, 6-3

THE MODERATOR: During the match today, how did you feel?

TAYLOR FRITZ: I feel really good. I feel like I played a really good match in my second round match, and I played a really good match today, so I'm feeling good about it.

THE MODERATOR: Questions, please.

Q. I want to ask you about Adam Walton. Do you know much about him? He's a Lucky Loser, and he's gotten through now to the Round of 16? What do you know about him? What do you expect from him?

TAYLOR FRITZ: I don't know too much. I was watching ain't every a little bit before my match in the locker room, but it seems like he's got a big game, big serve.

It happens like this sometimes. You know, Lucky Loser, and you kind of just feel really good as a Lucky Loser. You come in nothing to lose, and you start playing really well. I feel like this kind of thing happens all the time, so I have to obviously be ready. He has nothing to lose.

Q. Third seed here. I think the first time since Roddick that there's an American third seed. 19 Americans played in the tournament. Lost a lot of your buddies in the last few days. What's your take on just the amount of Americans really in the top 20, top 50? When are we going to get that first slam?

TAYLOR FRITZ: We've got a really deep group, really good group of guys? We've all been I think making each other better for a very long time, and the result of that is what we have now is so many guys. The depth is unreal.

I think with all the guys that are capable that we have, at some point it's going to happen for the slam.

Q. You got tested at the U.S. Open.

TAYLOR FRITZ: I obviously got close, so I think, especially just me being that close and almost doing it, obviously shows the other guys as well that it's right there.

Q. You talked the other day a little bit about how comfortable it is to be in Miami since you live here. Can you just talk about what's your daily commute been like? How easy is it to be able to play in this tournament and not have to worry about hotels and bus transportation and all that?

TAYLOR FRITZ: Yeah, it's been nice. It's been like -- depending on the time of the day and the traffic, these two weeks with spring break, Ultra, I feel like traffic is a bit worse than normal. You know, it's taken me between 20 and 30 minutes to get to the site. Where I live is closer than if I was staying at the hotels that everyone else stays in and downtown and Brickell.

It's nice. Like I said, it's nice to be driving my own car, sleeping in my own bed. We've done well in the past when I've had these kind of conditions.

Q. How about the conditions, like the weather conditions too that it's just what you deal with every single day here?

TAYLOR FRITZ: Yeah, it's fine. We play in a lot of, I guess, humidity all the time. Today was a bit hotter than it's been, but it still wasn't awful. You know, just hoping that we don't get any of those extremely windy days where you're basically not even playing tennis.

Q. Coming up against Adam in the next round, is the serve from both of your sides going to be the crucial aspect?

TAYLOR FRITZ: I don't think it's necessarily going to be so much the serve. I think obviously both of us are big servers. I think what that's going to do is make it so there's not a lot -- there's less chances probably on both sides.

So it is probably going to come down to more who is taking advances winning those big points because it's not like -- you play someone with a not so good serve, you're able to put yourself in a lot of return games, give yourselves chances to break. You play someone with a good serve, you might only get a couple of chances to get the break. So I think that's kind of where the serves come into play.

Q. I realize you played on Grandstand today, but I'm assuming you've played in the Stadium before.

TAYLOR FRITZ: Yep.

Q. How does that asymmetrical nature of the stands -- does that affect you at all?

TAYLOR FRITZ: I don't really notice. The only thing I think is annoying about playing on center in the past anyway is how different it is from other courts. It will never be the same as the other courts because they're laying it over a football field.

You're not going to be able to replicate the same as the courts outside that are laid over blacktop, cement, whatever. You are putting it on a field. It's always going to be a bit different. Then I would say around I guess the time that I'm playing or a little before the shadow that is cutting through half the court is also extremely annoying.

Q. Taylor, have you ever been in the same situation as Walton, Lucky Loser, and took advantage of it? Do you feel like this kid is playing with house money?

TAYLOR FRITZ: I've never had Lucky Loser in my entire life.

Q. Do you feel like there's no pressure, house money? He had a bye also.

TAYLOR FRITZ: I imagine that's how you feel. It's how you feel when you are playing, I don't know, maybe -- you feel good about the result, and you are playing someone who you know you have no pressure against.

Like I said, I can't speak for being a Lucky Loser. I feel like that would be a pretty good feeling losing in quallies and then all of a sudden you're straight into the second round of a tournament.

Yeah, I've never had that happen to me.

Q. The laying it over the football field, much softer than laying it over the asphalt? How do the two outside and inside differ?

TAYLOR FRITZ: I don't know what they're putting under the court on the center court, but, I mean, one thing that's extremely obvious is the practice courts bounce much higher than center court. I've practiced on center court a couple of times.

But even the practice courts are bouncy more than Grandstand, I think. For sure center court is bouncing a little bit lower. Typically, yeah, when you are laying a court over a surface that's not naturally hard, even if they want to put a massive layer of, I don't know, wood or whatever they're putting underneath the court before they lay the court, it's still going to be a bit softer, maybe feel a bit more like dead.

I mean, I still hit on center. I thought center was fast. I think it's definitely not as fast as Grandstand. Grandstand is extremely fast. I think the court is still fast, but it's going to be really tough to replicate it to the other courts just because of what's underneath the court is different.