Taylor Fritz has improved several aspects of his game in recent months and the results have been comforting. In the second half of the 2024 season, the American ace qualified for his first Grand Slam final at the US Open dreaming of following in the footsteps of his illustrious compatriot Andy Roddick.
His run in New York was really brilliant, but it didn’t end with a happy ending because of Jannik Sinner. The world number 1 confirmed that he is unstoppable on the hard courts and gave him no chance, although the crowd was totally on the side of the local idol.
Fritz then reached the semifinals at the Rolex Shanghai Masters (where he was defeated by Serbian legend Novak Djokovic) and the final at the Nitto ATP Finals in Turin (where he was beaten by Sinner once again).
Although he failed to lift any prestigious trophies, those results allowed Taylor to know that he was on the right track. The current world No. 4 has been working very hard during the off-season and has started 2025 in style with strong performances at the United Cup.
However, the favorable inertia changed during the Australian Open. The 2024 US Open finalist was hoping to achieve a very prestigious result at Melbourne Park, instead he was prematurely eliminated by French veteran Gael Monfils.
That loss has remained in the mind of Fritz, who has struggled a lot to play his best tennis in recent tournaments. However, the season is still very long and the American has plenty of time to shine again.
Fritz chooses Zverev
In a video posted on the ATP’s YouTube channel, Fritz revealed who his biggest rival is right now: “I think I’m going to stick to current trends and say the rivalry this year will probably continue to be me and Alexander Zverev.
I feel like Jannik Sinner and Carlos Alcaraz have their kind of rivalry going, so I don’t want to say either one of them even though I might end up playing them a lot.
But I’ve just played Sascha a ton, and I kind of just see us continuing to play each other a lot so that’s why I went with Sascha.”
Tennis World USA