THE CHAMPIONSHIPS

July 4, 2025

Taylor Fritz

Press Conference

T. FRITZ/A. Davidovich Fokina

6-4, 6-3, 6-7, 6-2

THE MODERATOR: Taylor, good match out there. Give us your thoughts on that one.

TAYLOR FRITZ: I thought I played really well, did well to get breaks pretty early in all the sets. I did really well to keep ahold of the break in the sets. I thought there were some really close games. He had some chances to break. I did a good job just to keep holding, get myself out of some really tight games.

Yeah, tough 5-4, served for the match. I thought he played a pretty good game to break me. I didn't do a ton wrong. I mean, I always say I could just serve better, I could just hit a couple more aces.

I'm happy with how I rebounded back. I feel like I upped my level a lot in the fourth and played a really good set in the fourth.

THE MODERATOR: Questions, please.

Q. You played five-setters back to back, then four sets today. You said after that you're feeling really good in your body. You actually feel better than you have in the first couple of rounds. Do you also feel your level is getting better?

TAYLOR FRITZ: Yeah, I mean, I think I played, from the baseline today, really, really good tennis. I thought he played pretty well a lot of times in the match. I was able to match that and sometimes even outplay him from the baseline. Normally I feel like when he's on from the baseline, in the past when I've played him, I feel like there's actually nothing I can do. I think it's a really good sign that I can stay with him there from the ground and sometimes even get the better of him when we're playing these really aggressive side-to-side points.

Yeah, the body. I mean, I think it was weird. The first day of my first match my knee was kind of bugging me. I've had tendinitis I've been dealing with. It's kind of flared up the whole grass court season I think just because you're taking a lot of extra stutter steps and stuff. It's a little tougher on it. I was feeling that a bit. It's actually now gotten better. Is completely gone.

A lot of the little things I was dealing with coming in are better now. I wouldn't be surprised if I'm a bit sore after this match. Because even though it was four, it was much more physical than my other two matches. I did a lot more side-to-side running in the heat as well. I wouldn't be surprised if I'm a bit sore. Overall I'm feeling good.

Q. What was it like to adjust from the kind of tennis that you played in the first two rounds to a completely different opponent? I realize it's the nature of the sport. You seem to have a very extreme version of it.

TAYLOR FRITZ: Well, I think it helps that I did just play him, like, whatever, six, seven days ago. I had a very good understanding of what kind of tennis I was going to have to play.

The biggest difference is I wasn't going to be chipping on my returns. I was going to be planning on hitting over returns. Even though I only hit for like 30 minutes yesterday, that was the main thing I was working on, was hitting over returns. I spent five days straight of just blocking, chipping. I hadn't hit over a forehand return in five days. That's the main thing I worked on. That's the main difference.

I do think in my match with Diallo, we played some really good baseline rallies. I felt like side to side from the baseline I got a good amount of, like, reps in there. I feel like I was good there.

Mentally I just had to prepare for more balls to come back, more serves to come back. I think he's a very good returner. He's one of the fastest guys on tour. I had to just mentally prepare for that part of the match.

Then game-wise, really the only thing was just preparing to be hitting over the returns.

Q. Is there a style you prefer?

TAYLOR FRITZ: I mean, there's positives and negatives for both. In this match I'm going to see myself in the point a lot more off the serve. But it's going to be a lot harder to hold serve and it's going to be a lot harder once I get into the rallies. And vice versa, it's going to be a lot easier to hold my serve against the other guys, but there's going to be a lot of times where there's absolutely nothing I can do on their serves.

Q. How do you, if you do, avoid the temptation to think ahead, Oh, gee, what if I play Alcaraz in a few days' time, what would that be like?

TAYLOR FRITZ: All I think about is just taking it one match at a time. For me it's easy to do that because when I've had success at tournaments and at big tournaments, that's always been my process. I can look ahead in the draw and see who's there, but I will not ever think about playing anybody that's not the person that's next to me in the draw.

Q. Was that from even an early time on the tour, or in the juniors? Did you have to learn that?

TAYLOR FRITZ: No, I think I've been like that for a long time. I think there's probably times where I was a little too overconfident, cocky, looked at the draw and been like, Oh, yeah, this is great, I play this person in the semis, play this person in the finals, and then I lose, then I have a really bad loss.

In my, whatever, hundreds of tennis tournaments I've played, maybe done that early on once or twice and been like, yeah, this is probably not the best way to go about it. It's fine to look and see hypothetically I could be playing this person or this person. At the end of the day, I never actually worry about it or think about it until I get there and always just take it one match at a time.

Q. You posted at Eastbourne about a match you played with Fonseca and the highlights. What do you think generally about the highlights that are put out? Do you think they're often misleading?

TAYLOR FRITZ: No. I mean, I'll make this very clear. I don't want to mess up what I'm saying. Let me just think for a second (smiling). I want to get my thoughts out. I've thought about this a lot.

There are naturally going to be more highlights of players that drive more engagement, and that's normal. That's fine. When I said that it was a clearly a joke. People think I'm complaining. I've had Brazilians telling me I'm a crybaby for the last month since I said it basically (smiling). Trust me, I do not care about that. It was a joke.

I think whether it be ATP or Tennis TV or whatever, it's in the media company's best interest to be posting the people who are going to drive the most engagement. That's just, like, what makes sense. That's what they're supposed to do.

Yes, Fonseca has a ton of fans and a ton of followers. There's other players like that, too, that are going to be posted more than the other players. But it's not something that we should be complaining about because, like I said, that's the business at the end of the day. They're trying to drive engagement. Those people are going to get the most engagement.

It is what is. I just thought it was funny. It's happened so many times. I practiced with like Carlos or Sinner or play a match, I look at the highlights. I think I won a set, a practice set against Carlos at maybe the Tour Finals. It was five Carlos highlights and one of mine. I'm like, I won a set. I look like I'm getting destroyed in the video.

It's funny. Like I said, I don't care. It makes sense that you're going to promote the more popular players.

Q. Have you ever had it explained how they put those packages together?

TAYLOR FRITZ: No. I wish I did because I think sometimes there's good, really good points missing. No, I don't know.

Q. The other night you were asked a pretty simple question about return of serve. You went off on a great answer about stance, grip, every nuance on your return. My question is: Do you enjoy the analytical part of the game? Is it something that is important to you? Is it important before the match and mid match?

TAYLOR FRITZ: Yeah, I mean, I love talking about tennis and all the analytical things. It's almost like too much to a point where I can get so, like, analytical into it that I feel like if I'm not talking to another actual professional tennis player, they might think I'm just talking about complete nonsense, to be honest.

I mean, I do enjoy it. I think when it comes to matches and playing, it's definitely simplified a lot. Getting too, too much into it is probably an issue.

When I'm playing my best tennis, I'm thinking very clearly and I'm taking mental notes of what's happening on every single point. I'm charting it in my head of where they're serving on what points.

When I'm not playing well, I'm typically nervous and my head's not working correctly. When I am playing well, I'm doing an amazing job of kind of just tracking everything and picking up on little things and cues and working through the match well, figuring out what things are working, what things are not working, what shot I might be losing a point off of, stuff like that, little things.

But when it comes to a game plan for a match, I'm trying to keep it pretty basic and broad because then it's easy to - what's the word I'm looking for? - easy to go out and do.

Q. Of the players, could you possibly say who are the really great thinkers that come to your mind?

TAYLOR FRITZ: I mean, the thing is, I don't talk tennis with everybody, so I don't know. People that I've gotten in-depth with who I think are incredibly smart about the game, one is Nick Kyrgios. He's incredibly smart and knowledgeable tennis about tennis. Frances, as well. Frances is also incredibly knowledgeable. We've talked about anything like strategy related. Those guys have very good I guess analytical skills.

Q. In your next match you play Thompson. What are your thoughts about that one? Where you are after all the ups and downs of this tournament so far.

TAYLOR FRITZ: I mean, I'm in a good place personally. I think I'm playing great tennis. I think there's even some things I could maybe feel like I can do better. I feel like just those things, then I think I'd be -- I don't think there would be anything for me to do better on the court. I'm super happy with my game.

I think Thompson is going to be tricky. He's probably going to serve and volley me a lot, chip me a lot. He beat me at Queen's last year. He's good on grass. I think it's a different kind of match to the ones I've been playing. I think it's going to be a lot of trying to kind of break my rhythm and take me out of my groove of just serving and ripping, so...

It's going to be different, for sure.

Q. Fonseca is on court now. What was the experience like of being on court with him?

TAYLOR FRITZ: I mean, I thought he was a really good player. I mean, I know he's a really good player. I watched him play I think in Australia, it was. That was very impressive. I think he's obviously very, very good.

But, I mean, it was probably the best match I had in Eastbourne, to be fair. It was windy all week. The first two sets we played were the only two sets I played all week with no wind, good conditions. I thought the level was really good.

He fought off a break chance in the second. I thought he played a very good breaker to win the second on me. I wish we could have actually finished the match that night because it was a really, like, fun, enjoyable match. It was a good level from both of us. It was too dark, so both of us just agreed to come back the next day.

Then when we came back the next day, it was just like a windy mess like the rest of the week. I can't tell you too much about that.

Yeah, he's an incredible player for 18 years old.