NEW YORK – Taylor Fritz ‘s voice cracked as he tried to put into words at Arthur Ashe Stadium what he was feeling: ‘It’s a dream come true, I’m in the final of the US Open’.
His colleague and compatriot Christopher Eubanks – in the role of commentator and interviewer – announced it on court as if Fritz didn’t know it, before the emotions overcame the world number 12. He is the first local to play for the US Open men’s singles title in 18 years.
Fritz has been the top ranked among the new generation of North American tennis players, but he was the one missing a deep run at a Slam.
Tommy Paul, Ben Shelton and Frances Tiafoe all reached the semi-finals. Fritz lost four times in the quarter-finals. Happy for his friends whom he has known since his junior days, he waited with humility and hard work for his moment, until 2024 in New York.
‘I think the way I handled it mentally was, well, every time I got to the quarter-finals, I played Djokovic. A way to protect my ego,’ he laughed to the media at Flushing Meadows.
Indeed, the Serb was his ceiling twice in Grand Slams. Before that, it was Rafael Nadal at Wimbledon 2022. Until last July, when at the All England Club he crossed paths with Lorenzo Musetti.
‘I had one where I played against Musetti and he completely outplayed me. That’s when I said that the old excuse was no longer valid,’ he said.
On Friday night he beat his teenage friend Tiafoe 4-6, 7-5, 4-6, 6-4, 6-1, and became the chosen one to pay on Sunday the debt of North American tennis, which is going through a significant drought of success in the male side, in relation to its powerful structure in the sport, since the days of Andy Roddick.
The name of the former world number one is the one that comes up again and again: last men’s Grand Slam champion (US Open, 2003), last runner-up in New York (2006), last finalist in any of the four major tournaments (Wimbledon, 2009).
A drought largely explained by the dominance of Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal and Novak Djokovic, and also because for several years there was no such a talented player as the ones called like John McEnroe, Jimmy Connors, Pete Sampras, Andre Agassi or Roddick.
Fritz knew the window was opening wider and wider. He said so in an interview with CLAY two years ago, when Federer’s retirement was looming, and injuries were starting to demolish Nadal, but Djokovic was looking as solid as ever.
‘The majors are much more winnable than before. I’m excited, because I feel like winning these titles is not so difficult anymore. The door is slowly opening and you can already see it: there have been a lot more Masters 1000 winners in the last two years than probably in a lifetime. When I was 18, 20 years old, basically only four or five people could win big events.
So Fritz took advantage of a US Open where his sporting nightmare lost in early rounds (the Serb defeated him the nine matches they played), and has been able to handle the pressure. It’s a stressful situation to play for being ‘the’ first American in the final after so long,’ he told reporters.
Fritz is not thinking about Roddick, or the years without great conquests of such a powerful nation. He will go out on Sunday to face Jannik Sinner, with the head-to-head tied at one win apiece, and ceding favouritism to the Italian.
He said it in that interview: ‘The pressure I feel is the pressure I put on myself’. It doesn’t seem to be any different.
