Taylor Fritz is a highly anticipated player at the 2025 Australian Open and everyone is wondering if he is finally ready to win a Grand Slam title. The American ace has improved a lot in recent months and has entered the Top 5 for the first time in his career, but he still seems a step below Jannik Sinner and Carlos Alcaraz.
Fritz© Stream screenshot
In 2024, Fritz reached his first Grand Slam final at the US Open, where he was defeated by Sinner in three sets despite the support of his fans. Taylor dreamed of becoming the first American player to triumph in New York since Andy Roddick, but he realized he still had to take one last step to achieve this feat.
Despite that very painful defeat, the current world number 4 did not give up too much and played well in the last part of the season. He reached the semifinals of the Rolex Shanghai Masters and the final at the Nitto ATP Finals in Turin, losing again to Sinner.
Annacone was right about Fritz
Fritz has started his 2025 in style at the United Cup and will be hoping to pull off a very prestigious result at Melbourne Park. His first opponent in the Happy Slam will be Jenson Brooksby, who has had a lot of problems in the last year.
Taylor Fritz, United Cup 2025© Stream screenshot
On the latest edition of Andy Roddick’s podcast, well-known journalist Jon Wertheim revealed that top coach Paul Annacone predicted that Fritz would be a contender to win the Majors several years ago.
“A few years ago we were speaking to Paul Annacone and said ‘Realistically how good is this kid?’ Paul said ‘really, really good, this guy could win Majors,” Wertheim explained.
“We all went really, because his results haven’t quite been there.
He said this guy will be outworked by nobody, he gets mad at himself.
You take a look at him, nice looking guy, sponsored by Hugo Boss and you don’t think of him as necessarily a grinder, this was four or five years ago.
Paul was saying this guy has got what it takes and Paul was 100% correct” – he concluded.
Tennis World USA