Taylor Fritz Is Optimistic About the Future of American Tennis
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As the grass court season kicked off, Taylor Fritz was feeling "okay."
"I'm trying to find my game," the 24-year-old tennis star told Town & Country from his hotel room after a match at the Queen's Club Championships, a lead-up tournament to the biggest grass court tournament of them all: Wimbledon. "I usually like grass a lot, but I've been dealing with some injuries recently. I'm just trying to make sure I'm healthy and kind of get my game back to where I was."
So far, getting his grass game back seems to be working, despite lingering knee issues: Fritz won the men's singles tournament at Eastbourne International—a grass tournament that is a key in the lead up to Wimbledon—and made it to the semi-finals of the men's doubles tournament at Queen's Club, another Wimbledon prep event.
And, how he feels aside, he's doing more than just "okay": Fritz is into the third round of Wimbledon, easily defeating Lorenzo Musetti 6-4, 6-4, 6-3 in the first round in one hour and 45 minutes, and Alastair Gray 6-3, 7-6(3), 6-3 in the second round in just over two hours. (His win against Gray included diving to hit incredible set point in the second set tiebreak.) He's the top-ranked American men's player in the world right now, and seeded number 11 in the tournament—a slightly higher seeding than his world ranking, due to Wimbledon's decision to ban Russian and Belarusian players. (We'll get into Fritz's feelings on that ban later—spoiler, he thinks it was a bad idea.)
Fritz was born in San Diego, California, to tennis playing parents—Kathy May, a top-10 women's player, and Henry Fritz, who also played professionally—and picked up his first racket at age two. In 2012, as a sophomore in high school, he started pursuing tennis full time and quickly rose in the ranks on the junior tour, winning the U.S. Open junior's tournament in 2015 and finishing that season as the no. 1 boy's junior tennis player. The same year, he turned pro.
Fritz has leaned into an aggressive, attacking game, with a powerful serve and forehand, that's been working extraordinarily well for him. "It’s been the forehand that’s really been clicking for me," he said earlier this year. "Just being able to unload and trust it."
It's his seventh year playing professionally. "When you're 16, 17 transitioning from the junior to pros, absolutely nothing is guaranteed," Fritz recalled. "Even if you're one of the best juniors in the world. It's really easy to get stuck and not make it."
But Fritz did make it: He was named the Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP) Newcomer of the Year in 2016, and is a force to be reckoned with on the tour. According to the ATP, as of mid June, Fritz has won $7.8 million in career prize money—$2.24 million this year alone. He's sponsored by Nike, HEAD Tennis, Rolex, and esports organization Rogue.
Fritz made the jump from the junior to the pros with a cohort of other young Americans: Frances Tiafoe, Reilly Opelka, and Tommy Paul. Those three are Fritz's close friends from junior tennis, and they often joke around together on social media; Fritz's pinned tweet currently is a snapchat of Opelka wearing a pair of shoes with Fritz's face on them.
"It's great that three of my really close friends all ended up making it to where we're at now together," Fritz said. "It's amazing to be able to travel around the world with these guys, [and] hang out with them. It definitely helps a lot with the fact that you're never home, when you have some of your closest friends with you."
The travel part of the life of a professional tennis player definitely takes its toll. "It's really tough to navigate the calendar," he explained. "You definitely don't get as many weeks home, especially this part of the year when everything's in Europe." He especially misses California, where his son, Jordan, lives with Fritz's ex-wife, Raquel Pedraza, another tennis player. They married young, when they were both just 18, and split three years later, in 2019. "I try to spend as much time as possible with my son when I'm home," Fritz said.
However, the demands of the tour mean his time home is limited, and even when he's back home, he's still focused on his training (with occasional breaks to eat Chipotle, what he misses the most on tour).
The rise of American men's tennis is clearly happening, led by California native Fritz, yet the eyes on tennis in recent months have more been about off-court controversies than on-court games. First there was the disappearance of Chinese tennis player Peng Shuai at the end of 2021; then the Australian Open debacle with Novak Djokovic and his vaccination record, which resulted in Djokovic's deportation from Australia the day before the tournament was supposed to begin; most recently, Wimbledon broke from the tennis tours to ban Russian and Belarusian players, making it the only Grand Slam tournament to do so.
"It is our responsibility to play our part in the widespread efforts of government, industry, sporting and creative institutions to limit Russia’s global influence through the strongest means possible," Wimbledon said in a statement in April. "In the circumstances of such unjustified and unprecedented military aggression, it would be unacceptable for the Russian regime to derive any benefits from the involvement of Russian or Belarusian players with The Championships."
Fritz, like many other players, is upset over Wimbledon's decision. "I wish that Wimbledon wouldn't have made the decision to ban Russian players and make it very political," Fritz said. "I know a lot of the players; none of them want what's going on in the world to be going on. It's really unfortunate; they're getting banned based off of where they happen to be born."
Fritz isn't alone in this sentiment; both the the men's and women's tours—ATP and the Women's Tennis Association (WTA)—have spoken out against Wimbledon's decision. (The ATP and WTA currently allow Russian and Belarusian players to compete, sans nationality.)
"The ability for players of any nationality to enter tournaments based on merit, and without discrimination, is fundamental to our tour. The decision by Wimbledon to ban Russian and Belarusian players from competing in the U.K. this summer undermines this principle and the integrity of the ATP ranking system," the ATP said in a statement ahead of Wimbledon, announcing they would be stripping Wimbledon of ranking points.
Fritz, however, is remaining focused on his game. In March of this year, the spotlight was on him when he bested Rafael Nadal to win the Indian Wells tournament in the Coachella Valley in California, breaking Nadal's perfect winning streak in 2022 and becoming the first American to win the Indian Wells men’s singles title since Andre Agassi in 2001. The victory raised Fritz's world ranking to 13 and, because the tournament is classified as an ATP Masters 1000, it was also his first ever clinching of a Masters 1000 title.
"That feeling after I win—that's the reason why I wanna play tennis," Fritz said. "And the reason why I love competing is how it feels when you actually accomplish something like that."
Fritz defeated Nadal in straight sets, winning 6-3, 7-6(5). "It felt like a dream. In the moment, I just kept saying 'there's no way this happened. There's no way this is real.' It was really, really special," Fritz said.
After the victory, Nadal was a mensch, telling his opponent, "Congrats to you, Taylor. Well done today, to you and your team. You are doing great. I know it’s a big day for all of you, so enjoy it. Very well played."
But, ever the competitor, Fritz is not satisfied with just accomplishing one dream. "I want to be top 10 this year," he said. "I want to make the world tour finals—so top eight." (The ATP Finals, held in November, feature the top eight singles players based on the year's rankings.) "I'm trying not to sit back and be happy or satisfied with everything, because I still want a lot more."
Tennis—and Fritz—may soon gain a lot more fans in an upcoming Netflix docuseries about the tennis tour. Fritz has been filming with the Netflix crew, who also produced Formula 1: Drive to Survive, and is extremely optimistic about the show's impact.
"It's gonna be hopefully huge for tennis in the U.S., and give people a look at what our lives are like." Fritz said. Netflix, he continued, "did amazing things for F1. So, I'm really hopeful that this is gonna get a lot of people into tennis."
Is he prepared to for the new level of fame? "I have no idea what to expect," he replied. "I just hope that it does really well and it's well received and a lot of people watch it."
When his girlfriend Morgan Riddle went viral on TikTok earlier this year for a video about making "tennis cool again," and Fritz leapt into the role of supportive boyfriend. After she faced some backlash from fans who said tennis is already cool, Fritz commented on her TikTok, writing, "For anyone disagreeing with the fact it’s 'relatively uncool in USA' let me know how often tennis is talked abt on sportscenter or espn 🤷🏻♂️"
"Anything that she does that brings more attention to tennis is good," Fritz said of Riddle's newfound celebrity. "In the U.S., I think tennis has a lot of work to do to be a more popular sport that younger people wanna watch and wanna follow."
Even if tennis doesn't have the biggest fanbase in the U.S., Fritz believes American men's tennis is in a "great spot." There's been a lock on the top men's spots by the so-called "Big Three"—Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal, and Novak Djokovic—yet, new talents are beginning to emerge.
"We have so many guys that are under the age of 25 that are top 40 in the world. There's so many good players and everyone in that group is improving and is only gonna get better," Fritz says.
Though he spent most of our phone call talking about his goals for the rest of 2022, and his high hopes for American tennis, he does allow himself a moment of contentment: "When I do take a step back and look at everything, it's really nice. I've worked my entire life for this, so it's nice to see that things are moving in my direction." And perhaps it's just a matter of time before the whole world knows Taylor Fritz's name.
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