Taylor Fritz: The Fire Within

Since his debut with Team World in Geneva four years ago, Taylor Fritz has demonstrated a steely grit that has propelled him into the Top 10 on the Pepperstone ATP Rankings.
A star of the Netflix series Break Point, the No.1 American has proved a threat on any surface, especially Laver Cup’s famous black court where he holds a 2-1 record in singles.

“He’s probably one of the most competitive people that I know, he’s a pretty nice guy as well. He’s definitely a special talent,” says Team World alternate, Chris Eubanks.

Fritz shocked the higher-ranked Dominic Thiem on the third day of Laver Cup competition at Geneva and contributed to Team World’s breakthrough title at The O2 in London in 2022, holding back Cameron Norrie in Saturday’s singles.

“He’s the most confident guy you’ll ever meet, he doesn’t think he’s ever going to lose,” says teammate Frances Tiafoe.

“He’s going to go out there and show why he’s one of the best players in the world, he’s going to compete immensely hard.”

How it’s going

The quiet Californian has set his sights on the sport’s highest honors, having claimed his maiden ATP Masters 1000 title at Indian Wells in 2022 where he overcame world No.4 Rafael Nadal.

Fritz entered the Top 10 last October and soared to No.5 in February. He won titles at Delray Beach and Atlanta on hard courts, taking his overall singles tally to six, while throughout the year he consistently showed up in the latter stages of tournaments on all surfaces.

He reached the semis at the Acapulco ATP 500, and the quarterfinals at both Indian Wells and Miami, repeating the feat on clay at Monte Carlo where he eliminated defending champion Stefanos Tsitsipas in the quarterfinals.

Heading into Laver Cup 2023, Fritz found form at the Cincinnati Masters and the US Open, where he faced eventual champion Novak Djokovic on both occasions in the last eight.

Fritz at the Laver Cup

While Fritz makes inroads as he travels the world with his team competing as an individual, being surrounded by teammates further inspires his fearlessness on court.

“The energy is amplified when you have the whole team rooting for you, or you can get on the bench and root for your teammate,” he says.

“The thing about tennis is, most of the time when you win you don’t have other people to celebrate with because it’s individual. When you win this team event, you have a whole group of guys to celebrate with so it’s so much more fun.

“I think I play a lot better when I have a team to fire me up and I have that added pressure that I don’t want to let the team down. I feel like I compete harder and I definitely thrive off the energy.

“Everyone can count on me to get the job done and perform under pressure when it comes to it.”

Fritz has tasted defeat with Team World and watched close editions won by Team Europe at the Laver Cup Prague 2017, Chicago 2018, and Boston 2021.

“Every year we’re always slated as the underdogs by everybody but I feel like every year we believed that we could win. Last year, it was unexpected but we all believed that we could do it, for sure,” he says.

“One thing that was so cool that I will forever be grateful that I got to be a part of was Fed retiring last year, getting the chance to be there, and he gave everyone a hug and I got to say ‘thank you for everything you’ve done for the sport Roger.’ That was one of the coolest moments ever for me. It was super emotional.”

Read Taylor Fritz’s full Team World profile