MUBADALA CITI DC OPEN

July 21, 2025

Taylor Fritz

Press Conference

THE MODERATOR: Questions.

Q. How have you been since Wimbledon? How have you sort of reflected on your run on the grass, especially that semifinal?

TAYLOR FRITZ: Yeah, it's good. I feel like it was needed to have, like, a good grass court season for me. Puts me in a good spot for the rest of the year kind of moving forward.

The tough part is just a quick turnaround to be here. I was home for a bit, just relaxing. I couldn't train every day. I was pretty busy with obligations and stuff I had to do, but here now, and I'm looking forward to kind of, I'm using this week a lot to get ready for the whole swing coming up.

The conditions are tough here, hot and humid. It's good to just be out here and be getting used to the conditions, because it's going to be like that in the next couple of weeks.

Q. I wanted to ask you about that. How does competing in that kind of heat and humidity help prepare differently than just, say, hitting and practicing in those conditions, especially maybe with an eye to what you'll have in New York?

TAYLOR FRITZ: Yeah, when you're playing a match, people play typically just a bit like safer as opposed to practice, you're probably not going to play as many long points when you're out there competing, going for every ball, pushing yourself harder than you're going to in practice.

It's just tougher. It hits you harder. Nothing you can't really compare being like match-fit to anything. I feel like being match-fit beats any kind of stuff you can be doing really off the court to get yourself in shape.

That's a big reason why I think playing this week is really good prep for the rest of the season. If I was, like, training elsewhere, I don't think I'd be getting in the same volume that I can get in here.

Q. Looking back at the run at Wimbledon, it's a new benchmark for you. What's the balance between reaching that point and obviously wanting another notch or two? But what is the satisfaction with where you did get?

TAYLOR FRITZ: Yeah, I'm always going to want more, but, you know, it's somewhere I hadn't been before, so I have to be happy about the fact that it's a new, you know, best result for me at Wimbledon.

Like I said, it's a good week, a good grass court season in all. I made up a lot of points and put myself in a pretty good spot in the race for this, basically the rest of the year where I like most of the tournaments and the conditions for the rest of the year.

Yeah, I just have to kind of take confidence from that run. Also, you know, take a lot of the things I learned from the match in the semifinals, things I can improve on, do better, and start working on it.

Q. Obviously you're one of the players that went deep at Wimbledon. The last couple of days, we have seen a lot of the top guys like Carlos, Jannik, Novak, Jack, they all pulled out of Toronto. I'm curious with the two-week, the change to the two-week Masters this year right after D.C., if there is talk in the locker room or maybe you personally feel like it's too much of a squeeze, scheduling-wise, if you have any thoughts on that?

TAYLOR FRITZ: Yeah, I mean, I think, like, I mean, probably pretty much all the players for a long time have been asking for the season to be shorter, but all we are doing is just lengthening it, adding more stuff, we're adding more, like, longer tournaments.

The Hopman Cup was after Wimbledon. I didn't even know this was going on. They had an event with like Felix and Cobolli playing a tournament right after Wimbledon, and one of them is coming and playing here. It's insane. We are just adding stuff to the calendar over and over again.

I think they shortened parts to obviously give themselves an extra week to do this, to make it the three weeks between the two tournaments, but we should just be -- you know, I think it's funny how we can shorten, we find ways to shorten the schedule to make room for other tournaments, but we can't find room to shorten the schedule just for there to be nothing. I'd love to see it go back to just two weeks and maybe we can have an extra, can shorten the season a week, I don't know.

But it's a lot of tennis. It's a lot of tennis upcoming.

Q. Just kind of big picture, over the past couple of years, how would you describe the development of American men's tennis? Is it ever conversations you share with guys like Frances and Tommy and some of the other top-ranked guys, just about all the collective strides you guys have made as a group over these last several years?

TAYLOR FRITZ: I don't feel like we all really talk about it, like, amongst each other. I think as far as it goes is, like, we'd say our group's doing well.

But it's been a really just steady growth. We have had this great group of guys I have known since we were 14, 15 years old, and it's been great to do this whole thing with them and kind of climb up and come up like with them.

Q. Talking about the schedule, is there any difference for you in terms of how you approach a tournament or maybe your mindset going in, playing these one-week things versus where you know you'll have a day off between matches, maybe you get some practice in? How do you approach that differently if it is different at all?

TAYLOR FRITZ: Yeah, to be honest, I am complaining about the length of the two-week tournaments, but at the same time, I don't dislike playing a match and having a day off and playing a match. I think mentally that's a bit easier for me, because I can, like, really focus in on the day that I play, and then I can have a day where I don't need to be, I can just relax a bit and reset and come back and do it again.

I think the tournaments that are just a straight week, you've just kind of have to tell yourself, all right, I'm going nonstop five days in a row now. Let's just do it. You need to be very, just pumped up, locked in, ready to go. You just go through the whole tournament and it's full go.

It's weird. It's just kind of like kind of, like, mindset and feeling I'm in. Some weeks I might prefer just to go all at once, and some weeks I might prefer to have a day off after my matches.

Q. There's a guy, Karue Sell, who played quallies here. Also a YouTuber. He posted a video of a practice set that you guys played where he beat you. What can fans take away from that? Is practice so much different than a match, that it doesn't really show anything or what does it show?

TAYLOR FRITZ: I wasn't even supposed to practice that day, to be honest (smiling). I went to the courts -- the gym I train is there, so I trained at the gym. Then I was, like, I'm here, I might as well practice.

I don't even know. I think I, like -- trying to think what the situation was. I can't remember. I was coming back from somewhere. I was coming back from, like -- where was it? Was it clay or was it grass or -- regardless. I was coming back from somewhere, and I hadn't practiced in a couple days. I was supposed to take that day off and I just went and played.

Yeah, I mean...

Q. He did say you were at the beginning of your season. He wasn't bragging on beating you or anything like that.

TAYLOR FRITZ: He still uploaded it. (Laughter.)

No, that was an interesting one. I would say that's not normally how I practice, to be honest. There is a very big difference between practice and play. Like, for me, I'm lucky I'm one of the guys that I feel like I play way better in actual tournament matches when it matters. There is a lot of guys that play a lot better in practice than they do in matches.

I still, you know, normally am trying my best in practice, trying to play my best tennis, because that's what's going to give me confidence is feeling like I'm playing good in practice.

Yeah, I wouldn't take too much from that. That's not normally how I -- I don't normally show up in practice like that (smiling).

Q. I want to ask about you going to the ESPYs, specifically about your Naruto chain there.

TAYLOR FRITZ: Yeah.

Q. How did you decide to bust that out for that occasion?

TAYLOR FRITZ: I just thought it was, like a lot of athletes understand -- I think a lot of athletes know what it means, so athletes are kind of into Anime and stuff.

So I thought, oh, it's cool. A lot of people get it. So yeah. And I wanted to get a pendant for a really long time, and I just had no clue what to get.

That was, like, the one symbol that clicked in my head. It was, like, unique and cool to me.

Q. I couldn't see it close up. What is it made of? Any kind of jewelled anything?

TAYLOR FRITZ: Yeah, it's just made like just regular diamonds and red diamonds.

Q. Venus is walking right there, but Venus was talking yesterday about players, like, on and off court, style choices. Following up on that, how do you feel you go about making decisions for on-court stylistic fashion choices?

TAYLOR FRITZ: On court?

Q. Yes.

TAYLOR FRITZ: At the end of the day, most players, we're leaving it up to our sponsors to dress us. And I'm pretty lucky. I think that Boss has done a great job with all the stuff that they give me. The input that I have is mostly only ever about the material of the stuff, like I just want it to feel comfortable.

But I like the fact that I have been wearing more of basic, plain colors. I think it looks classy, not too crazy. Sometimes when I wear a really insane outfit, a lot going on, it's almost like you don't feel great on the court because it just looks crazy.