AUSTRALIAN OPEN

January 16, 2025

Taylor Fritz

Press Conference

T. FRITZ/C. Garin

6-2, 6-1, 6-0

THE MODERATOR: Taylor, congrats. Great performance on court today. Are you looking forward to the next round with Gael?

TAYLOR FRITZ: Yeah, it's going to be a fun match. I'm super happy with how I played through my first two rounds. I thought today I played really well. Hopefully I can play like that again in the third round.

THE MODERATOR: Questions, please.

Q. That very generous donation to Los Angeles fire relief, your thoughts on making that? Do you have any family or friends directly impacted by the fires?

TAYLOR FRITZ: Yeah, I mean, I feel like it's really, like, the least I can do. Obviously So. Cal has been my home forever. I spent a lot of time, I still spend a lot of time in L.A., but I lived in L.A. for quite a while.

I have friends impacted. Family not so much. I had some family have to evacuate. The house that my brothers grew up in burnt down. Obviously they're not living there anymore.

Yeah, I mean, a lot of people are affected by it. I feel like if you're in a place to help, then you should.

Q. Just wanted to ask about your knee. What happened and how are you feeling?

TAYLOR FRITZ: Yeah, I just hyperextended my knee running for a ball, which could probably be a bigger problem for some other people. But my knees just hyperextend a lot and are very flexible.

I kind of just jammed it. It hurt for, like, 30 seconds, like a minute. I kind of had to take a second for the pain to go away. Test it, make sure it was fine.

Yeah, after I just kind of take a second, I felt fine. There was maybe like a little bit of pain when I took it the other way. Maybe did like a full bend on it. But not really any situations on the court where I'm going into that position. So it's fine.

Q. Maybe know more how it feels tomorrow?

TAYLOR FRITZ: I would expect it just to be a little sore. I really think I'm going to be totally fine.

Q. What is your kind of fueling rituals, routines before a match and then during? What are your go-to meals?

TAYLOR FRITZ: I'd say like this week, there's nothing in specific, nothing particular. I feel like on the day of my match, before the match, I don't typically like to eat a ton of food. I don't like feeling, like, heavy.

I'll eat like an omelette and toast in the morning, then a pasta before my match.

I feel like it's the day off, the day before, where I try to eat as much as I possibly can.

Q. Carbs?

TAYLOR FRITZ: A bit of everything. Carbs, protein. When you're about to play three-out-of-five sets, potentially in some heat as well, you literally can't eat enough.

It's funny. During the US Open, I guess I was eating so much during my off days, I gained eight pounds during the tournament, in the tournament, which is insane.

Yeah, I tend to eat a lot on the off days.

Q. What about during a match?

TAYLOR FRITZ: I just drink water and I drink my Waterdrop electrolytes. Then I have like a very little bit of the Gu energy gels.

I'm someone, if I eat on court, I feel sick. I feel like I'm going to throw up. I don't like to eat a lot.

Q. Danielle Collins, a teammate in United Cup, what was she like as a teammate and a person to be around?

TAYLOR FRITZ: I mean, she was a great teammate. On the bench she was cheering super loud for all of us. We didn't see a lot of her, because after a couple days after she got there, she got really sick, actually.

We told her we don't want to get sick. We also don't want to force yourself to be around us, because it's a team event. She didn't good.

When she did feel better at the end of the week, she was a great teammate on the bench, just cheering for everyone and being very, like, positive.

Q. Did you know her well before that?

TAYLOR FRITZ: Obviously we all know of each other just being around. Yeah, I mean, I previously, just from knowing her, I had never actually had any bad things to say about Danielle. I've always had pleasant, I guess, experiences.

Q. I wanted to ask you about a couple teens we've seen have top-10 wins here this week. Joao Fonseca and Mensik. What are your impressions of those two guys?

TAYLOR FRITZ: Mensik and Fonseca?

Q. Yes.

TAYLOR FRITZ: Yeah, I mean, I think both of them are really good players. I don't think the upsets are too surprising to me. I thought Rublev/Fonseca would be a bit closer probably. Yeah, I watched a little bit of that match.

Really impressed. The guy, the kid is a very, very good player. His game is pretty complete as well.

Mensik as well has definitely improved a lot over the last couple years. I mean, I played him at the Open in '23. I literally think I played him on his 18th birthday. He's improved a lot since then.

Slightly different games. Yeah, I mean, it's going to be interesting to see. I'm impressed by both of them.

Q. If you can think back to when you were a teen starting out on tour, first playing in Grand Slam matches, did it feel daunting to you at that point to be that age on these stages? Do you think there's anything about either them in particular, those two guys, or the game in a broader sense that might have changed in terms of the possibility for people at that age to get breakthroughs now?

TAYLOR FRITZ: I mean, first of all, I actually think when you're that age playing these big events, I think it's so much easier to play than what you're a bit older.

When you're that age, getting to play these big matches, there's no expectations, there's no pressure. You know you have, like, all the time in the world to improve. You're so early in your career.

It's really easy to go out and just play like these, I don't know, loose matches where you're just firing off the ball and crushing it and playing great.

Yeah, I'm super impressed by both these guys. We'll obviously see how they improve. I think both of them are going to be incredible players.

I don't know. Also when I was younger, I think the top four or five was pretty ridiculous. It was like four or five... We had Rafa, Fed, Novak, Andy, Stan, all those guys at one time. It was pretty tough to break through playing against like a top-8 seed.

I think maybe now it's a little more winnable for the younger guys because all the top seeds aren't some of the best players of all time.

That being said, I mean, there's still a lot of... Like the depth is really strong right now with our current generation. Yeah, I don't know. I mean, it's tough. It's tough to compare the different times.

I mean, I think these guys are probably better than me when I was their age.

Q. The debate of youth versus experience, do you think one has an edge over the other when it comes to performing at a Grand Slam?

TAYLOR FRITZ: I think there's positive and negatives both ways.

Obviously when you're experienced, you're going to handle a lot of times the bigger moments a bit better just 'cause you've been there before.

On the other side of it, you have more pressure on yourself because you're the one that's supposed to win. Yeah, I mean, there's just more pressure. You're playing against a person that is going to have no pressure on them at all. They're playing loose. You're going to get their best level.

It kind of goes both ways.

Q. Head-to-heads is such a big part of tennis. When you have a record like yours against Novak, how do you process that before play? Do you try to put it out of your head? Do you embrace it and say you have to change up everything or keep doing what you're doing? What is the thought process there?

TAYLOR FRITZ: I mean, it would be different if my whole record against someone, and if I have a really bad record against someone, is all within like a span of a year or two.

I think with Novak, it's easy for me to not be so concerned with whatever it is, 10 or 11, because so many of those matches, like, I see myself as a completely different player to when I played a lot of those matches.

Since I've really I think improved a lot and become a better player, I feel like we've only played three times since then. Those three themselves have been much closer than a lot of the other ones.

I don't think it's one of those things where I need to go on the court and change everything. I mean, World Tour Finals and Shanghai, both of those matches I was just a point or two away from taking it to a third set. Then obviously here, we split after the first two sets.

I don't think it's like doomed or anything like that (smiling). I think I'm a much better player than 80% of what the record would say.