MIAMI OPEN PRESENTED BY ITAú

March 27, 2025

Taylor Fritz

Press Conference

T. FRITZ/M. Berrettini

7-5, 6-7, 7-5

THE MODERATOR: Taylor, what an amazing battle and amazing performance. How do you feel after that match?

TAYLOR FRITZ: Yeah, I feel great. Obviously gave myself a lot of chances throughout the match. I wish I could have made it happen in the second set.

I think I made it extremely tough for myself. He raised his level and played really well in the third, so I had to work, you know, extra hard to win the third set and raise my level, as well.

After not closing it out, you know, not winning those match points, I think I showed one of my biggest strengths in resetting and being able to win the third.

THE MODERATOR: Questions.

Q. Taylor, congratulations on a tremendous victory. You left it all out on the court today for the fans, you and Berrettini. I thought you moved well. I thought you served well. But I thought your return, you returned incredibly well. Did you feel the same way? Did you feel like your return of serve was really on tonight and a key to winning the match?

TAYLOR FRITZ: I feel like, yeah, I returned well. To be honest, if you watch any of the matches I've played specifically against Matteo, I feel like I have returned kind of like I did tonight in a lot of our matchups.

You know, it's very far off of how I normally position myself to return. Typically I'm more comfortable being a bit more back, giving myself more time. Against him, I feel like serve is too good and too comfortable, gives him too much time to find the forehand when I'm returning far back.

I return in a really off way where I'm almost jumping into his first serve, taking it inside the baseline, chipping the forehands, trying to just use my timing and my hands to make something off the backhand.

Yeah, it's always given me a lot of success playing him, returning like that, so I wanted to stick with it today.

Q. Could you compare what it's like to play a match like that against a guy where you get so few looks and points are so short and you're going back and forth versus those sort of rhythm matches that you play like when you're playing Jannik or someone else and you have those sort of zen rallies?

TAYLOR FRITZ: Jannik is still the same, too. You're not going to get a lot of looks with him either.

Q. Yeah, but what are the different challenges of going through something like this tonight versus something where you're rallying?

TAYLOR FRITZ: I think one thing when you're playing the rallying and all this, I think the match becomes a bit more physical. In this match, it's nighttime, wasn't even humid tonight, we're playing a lot of short points.

I never have to think about, like, I can play every point, you know, as hard as possible, like, run, play like crazy for everything. I know that fatigue is never going to be an issue in a point where there is so much big serving and short points.

I mean, rhythm-wise, I think the biggest thing is you just have to stay really focused, because one kind of off-game where I make some mistakes, I don't have that rhythm and the match is basically just over. So you have to really kind of just lock in and take care of serve first ball, that stuff.

Q. The fact that you had six match points early, you didn't seem to get frustrated. I guess only one was on your serve. That's first of all. Showed a lot of mental strength. You have to be proud of yourself in that regard.

TAYLOR FRITZ: Yeah, of course. I mean, I look back at the match points and probably a lot of it is I'm coping so I don't get too upset in the third set. But like you said, I had one on my serve, and I'm not upset at all about that because I hit a very good serve.

I went back and I already watched it to confirm that the spot of the serve was actually very good. And it was. He full committed on it, full commit leaned on that serve, so he knew I was going there, I guess, and crushed a return.

So I actually can't be upset about that point at all. And then, you know, the one that I'm probably a little bummed about is the second-serve backhand-line look I had at 6-5, I feel like when I see that specific shot and I like it, which I really liked the backhand line on that one, I feel like I never miss that. So I was pretty upset about that one. And he was already running around to look for the forehand, so I would have had him on that one.

So I think that's the one that probably frustrated me the most because it's such a routine shot for me I shouldn't miss. Outside of that, he played the big points well.

The two options you have is to really let it frustrate you and lose the match, and then once you lose the match, it's going to frustrate you even more, thinking and dwelling about all those points you could have had, or you can forget about it and win, and I'm not too bothered about those match points I didn't capitalize on.

Q. You got Jakub Mensik next. You played him at the US Open. I think he was a puppy then and you waxed him pretty good. This may help you against him, because the kid's got a huge bomb.

TAYLOR FRITZ: Maybe. I think I personally don't -- I'm not sure how I'm gonna approach the return. How I returned tonight, like I said, it's something I only typically do against Matteo and maybe a couple other people when it's not working out for me. Obviously I trust my return how I normally return.

But I guess tonight, after playing this match, I know that if I'm struggling, things aren't working out returning, I can try I can mix it up, try different things. Obviously I returned great today. I'm going to have that confidence returning a big serve.

Q. Great match. First, is it easier to keep your composure when your opponent is playing so well as opposed to you're not playing as well? Except for the one backhand, like you said, he seemed to come up with incredible shots.

TAYLOR FRITZ: Yeah, I mean, I think if a lot of those set points or match points for me were something I did extremely wrong, maybe it would have been tougher to get over I think in those big moments.

In those big moments, it definitely, for me, is easier to get over it when I feel like I didn't do too much wrong. But even then I'm still going to try to, you know, come back from it, recover, and, yeah, it was definitely still -- beginning of the third set, I'm still having thoughts about, like, the shots that I missed or what I could have done or thinking I literally could have just served the slowest serve wide at the 6-5 point, probably could have aced him, because he leaned so hard.

I have to kind of remind myself in the beginning of the third set, stop thinking about that, literally just completely out of my head, and move on.

Q. Can you talk about your recovery for tomorrow? What's the normal recovery, one day as opposed to two days?

TAYLOR FRITZ: Yeah, it's tough to, you know, obviously this was my longest, most physical match, so it's tough that this will be the day I've got to kind of got to come back and play the next day. It will be fine.

I'll work with my physio on the body. I will probably hop in an ice bath and get a nice sleep.

Q. I wanted to ask you when you play a guy like Matteo who has a bigger groundstroke on the forehand, how do you find the balance between staying away from that big forehand but also attacking that strength and going to the weakness? How do you find that in those really small margins?

TAYLOR FRITZ: I have to find the balance. Sometimes I -- I try to analyze every single point after the point is over. I'm always running it back through my head, figuring out what shot the point went wrong on for me.

At some points of the match, I felt like I maybe overplayed the backhand on that rally, I was maybe too safe. Maybe I had a ball I could have pulled to the forehand because it was an opportunity I could have hurt him or hit a winner and I played it too safe. There were a lot of points where I felt like I maybe ego'd it a little too much, taking my forehand into his forehand when I should have just gone to the backhand.

There's times I'm thinking it throughout match. And there were plenty of times in the match where I think I was maybe too passive trying to find the backhand and several times when I probably should have taken the safer play going to the backhand instead of pulling the ball to the forehand.

It's a judgment call kind of in the moment, and as the match goes on, you start to get a better feel of what you can kind of get away with.

Q. You mentioned you have already reviewed some video. Is it common for you to review video that quickly after a match, or was that just a coincidence?

TAYLOR FRITZ: I came off the court, and my coach tried to tell me I didn't hit a good spot on my serve on 6-5, and I said, you're crazy, go watch it. Obviously you may think the serve was not good because of how good a return he hit. I said, no, I'm not taking that from you right now.

He acted like I missed my spot. I said, go watch it. I promise it was two inches from the line.

Q. That was you with Michael Russell?

TAYLOR FRITZ: Yeah. I said, go watch it. Pull it up. I hit the serve at least two inches from the serve. It was a good serve. He just leaned it.

We had to pull it up and confirm. He told me I was right (smiling).