THE CHAMPIONSHIPS

July 6, 2022

Taylor Fritz

Press Conference

R. NADAL/T. Fritz

6-4, 4-6, 6-3

THE MODERATOR: Taylor, really tough one out there for you. Can you give us your thoughts.

TAYLOR FRITZ: Yeah, it was a tough match. I think, you know, I did some things well and some things not as good. In the end he was just really, really, really good.

Certain parts of the match I felt like maybe I kind of just needed to come up with more, do more. I left a lot kind of up to him, and he delivered.

It was a great match. Honestly, probably hurts more than any loss I've ever had.

Q. Before the tournament Stefanos was asked about what he thought of Rafa. He suggested that Rafa is more threatening this year when he's not fully fit. Did you feel that out there today, given you were able to see how much he was struggling physically?

TAYLOR FRITZ: I think maybe in the second set when it looked bad. It definitely made me kind of think. I kind of stopped being as aggressive. I feel like I let it kind of get to me a little bit. It looked for a bit like he wasn't moving so well for some shots, and then obviously the serve lost some speed.

But then I feel like towards the end of the second, we played some really long rallies where I was running him side to side and he was making some gets that I don't think a lot of normal players would be getting to.

I feel like after he won the second set and after we had some of those long, extended rallies, I kind of like snapped back into it. I was like, All right, from the ground I can't treat it like he's injured. These points we're playing, the gets he's making seem normal. The only thing different was the speed of the serve.

Yeah, I think in the second set it definitely kind of just like maybe just made me feel like I could like play a little bit safer for a bit. Like I said, I snapped out of it because I felt like once we had some of those longer, extended rallies where he was running side by side, I had to play normal if I wanted to win.

Q. Is there a part of you when you see someone who appears to be that seriously injured, coming out and playing points like he did, is there a part of you that feels there's gamesmanship going on there?

TAYLOR FRITZ: No. I think in the beginning when he did it, he probably didn't know maybe how bad it was. Maybe that explains how the movement for a couple games was maybe not as, like, explosive. I don't know if he took any painkillers or anything. Kind of once he got a feel for the injury, he knew it was only really going to really affect him on the serve and he could, like, play through from the back.

No, I don't think he, like, made up an injury or anything. His serve dropped, like, I don't know, 10, 15 miles per hour. He wouldn't do that for no reason.

From the ground I thought third set, fourth set, fifth set, he was money. He was moving really well, playing amazing defense. I was absolutely ripping the ball in corners and he was running and ripping them back for winners, so...

I'm sure he played through most likely a lot of pain. Everyone's got little injuries and everyone's got stuff this late into a tournament. Everyone's kind of trying to play through stuff. It is what it is.

Q. What's the difference between playing him on grass versus playing him on the hard court like Indian Wells?

TAYLOR FRITZ: It's a little easier for me to return serve on the hard court just because I can back up a little more, hit my forehand better. I definitely felt like my return today was pretty underwhelming, not great actually.

I actually felt like I returned a lot worse when he slowed the serve down. I actually liked for the set and a half the way that he was serving when he was serving more at like 120 because I could take a shorter swing and use that pace to power back. Once he started serving it slower, I had to generate more, take a bigger swing on the return. So I actually felt like it made it tougher for me to return.

But I guess as well at Indian Wells when he plays those short slices that he does a lot against me, it's one of his I guess key points, strategy, from every time he's played me, he throws in a lot of junk slices to kind of give me no pace to work with.

On grass it's going to stay a lot lower, making it a lot tougher for me to finish points. On a hard court it will sit up a little bit more so I can attack it a bit better. Yeah, it was really tough. He was playing a lot more of those junk ball slices, then stepping back behind the baseline, and I was just trying to rip and finish points. It was really tough to finish the point off those shots.

Q. What you've done here at Wimbledon, what are your thoughts? Can you talk a little bit more about specific opportunities you might have had in the match.

TAYLOR FRITZ: Yeah, I mean, taking a step back, it's nice. I made my first quarterfinal. I'm moving in the right direction.

I don't know. I would look at I guess my form and how I feel like I've been playing and my draw, and I would expect myself to make the quarterfinals. It's a great achievement, I'm really happy.

I really, really wanted this match. So it's tough right now I guess to look at the bright side of things because I really, really wanted this one.

Then I guess just chances in general, probably my best chances were the three times that he was serving to stay in the match, once in the fourth and twice in the fifth. I just needed to do more those games. I needed to make it close. I needed to at least get him to like a 30-All, get him thinking that if he loses one more point, it's match point.

I didn't make him sweat in those games enough, didn't make him feel the pressure in those games. I kind of played within myself. I needed to kind of just, I guess, make more happen. I just needed to kind of make more happen in those three games and maybe we could have seen a little bit more pressure on him.

Q. Seems like Djokovic and Nadal are going to emerge through the slam draws. Do you ever get that same sort of sense of inevitability up against them even before, during or after a match? These guys just keep doing it over and over, it's sort of impossible to change it at this point.

TAYLOR FRITZ: I think I used to think like that. I think I've matured and I've become a much better player. Like, you're never going to be able to beat these guys if you actually believe that.

At Indian Wells I truly believed that I could win, and I truly believed that I could beat him. The same goes for today. It's kind of just the attitude you have to have. These guys, they're so good at slams. But a lot of beating them is also kind of beating the name you're playing against, just having that belief that you can do it.

I think that's a big hurdle to get over. I think that's something that has definitely changed for me more recently, is that I do believe they're beatable. But it still takes a hell of an effort to be able to beat them.

Q. You said this is probably the most difficult defeat of your life. What's number two? What are you comparing this to?

TAYLOR FRITZ: I can't. That's the thing. I don't know. I feel confident saying this is number one because literally after the match was over, I was sitting there and I felt like crying, like I wanted to cry. I've never felt like that ever after a loss. I've never felt like I could cry after a loss.

Just that's telling enough to know that this one hurt more than any other one's hurt before.

Q. When you get into a five-set match, one that goes to the limit like that, it's a rare situation. What did you learn about yourself today? What can you draw from the next time you encounter that kind of situation?

TAYLOR FRITZ: I'm not really sure necessarily what I learned about it. Typically these are the situations that I live for. You go look at final set tiebreak records, I probably have the best record on tour in deciding set tiebreakers. I love it.

I felt really good going into the 10-pointer, then I just got destroyed. I don't really feel like I did much wrong either, to be honest.

If I could do it again, I would probably just try to be even more aggressive than I was. I felt like I was being as aggressive as I felt comfortable with without making a ton of errors, like being able to make balls but maybe I needed to kick it up a gear and go for it even more, so...

It's easy to talk about that after I've lost.

Q. People all over the world in all sports cheer for underdogs. Do you ever find it weird that a guy has 22 slams and the crowd thinks it needs to give him further encouragement?

TAYLOR FRITZ: I mean, it would be nice to get some crowd support. I can't be mad at it when it's someone like Nadal. I mean, it's Nadal. How can you question anybody for wanting to cheer for him? It is what it is.

Q. Were you a bit more nervous today than for the previous rounds? Was there any moment in the match where you felt a bit more anxious than other times? You also said on Monday about being aggressive. Do you think you were aggressive today?

TAYLOR FRITZ: Okay, yeah, I'd say I felt less nervous in this match than the other ones. I think I said it in the last press conference. I think it is always tougher to beat people you're supposed to beat than the people you're not supposed to beat. There's more pressure to it.

Obviously you're playing on Centre Court Wimbledon, it's a huge match. There's going to be times where it's tense. But I never felt like I, I don't know, made errors or threw away points because I was really nervous or anything. I felt like I kind of stuck to what I was trying to do the whole time.

When I did miss, it was typically me overhitting, trying to do too much. I do feel like I was trying to be aggressive.

The issue was on one side I was pretty against the wind. It was almost like I couldn't feel the wind as much, like, in my face or anything, but you could definitely feel it coming off the ball.

On one side it was much easier to put the ball away. It was flying much more. On the one side you were against the wind. When I was on the side against the wind, especially last two sets, I was honestly trying to hit the ball as hard as I could, and it was kind of just sitting there for him. I felt like the wind was stopping it, and he was getting lots of time to unload on the ball.

On that side the wind is helping him put the ball away on me. Just like felt very overwhelmed on that side, just trying to lean in and rip backhands into his forehand, and he would just like go change line winner.

I felt like it was a bit tough to be aggressive on that side, especially he's giving me these nothing slice balls and I'm trying to attack it, attack it. It's very tough to generate any kind of power off that shot when he's giving me no pace to work with.

Also with the wind kind of in my face slowing the ball down as well, it was tough to be aggressive and be successful at it from that side of the court.

But from the other side of the court I did a much better job of hurting him with the pace and being able to get balls past him. But, of course, kind of the same thing. His balls are going to sit a little bit more from me on that side, my balls are going to get a little extra speed as well with the wind at my back.

I think I was aggressive, as aggressive as I felt comfortable with being. If I tried to be more aggressive, I felt like I would have been spraying balls and making a lot more mistakes. I tried to be as aggressive as I thought I could be while still kind of playing within myself.