US OPEN

September 3, 2025

Taylor Fritz

Press Conference

N. DJOKOVIC/T. Fritz

6-3, 7-5, 3-6, 6-4

THE MODERATOR: Taylor, great match. Great tournament. Questions.

Q. Taylor, how do you feel you played in that match, starting particularly in the third set?

TAYLOR FRITZ: From the third set -- I mean, the third set I served a lot better than I did in the first and second. From the ground, I don't think I played that much better in the first than I did in, like, the first and second set.

To be honest, the first three sets weren't great. I think the level in the fourth set was probably the best level that I played. He played a lot better in the fourth set, as well.

But, yeah, really the only difference in the third set from the first two sets was I just served well in the third set, and I converted a breakpoint. You know, that was the big difference. Typically that is all I usually need to do to win a set is convert a breakpoint and serve well. The first two sets was just -- it was just not it for that.

Q. Talk through the breakpoints. You finally broke on your 11th breakpoint. What was going on on those first 10 or so? Did that mount frustration? Did you feel like you were getting close or making progress? How did that play out for you?

TAYLOR FRITZ: To be honest, the fact I was, like, 0-10, that actually, like, almost sounds better for me than it really was, because that's not counting how many times I had 15-30, Love-30, 30-All. The fact that I was 0-10, that's putting it nicely.

I had so many more chances that you're not going to see on a stat line, because I had so many -- like, I was in points at Love-30, 15-30, 30-All. I was just converting and playing these points just really poorly.

When it comes down to the breakpoints themselves, I'd say, like, out of the 10 -- you said I converted on 11? I'd say the first 10, I would say five or six of them he played pretty well. It's tough, you know. Tough for me to kind of like do too much.

Then maybe, like, four of them I just played a bad point or was too conservative or pulled the trigger on the wrong time. Just bad decision-making, because I wasn't playing as well as I would have wanted to.

So it gets a little bit tough in those pressure situations to kind of, like, know what I, I guess, want to do, if it's not really working for me.

Q. Given what you just said, how close does it feel breaking through and beating him when you're in a fourth set like that?

TAYLOR FRITZ: I mean, the thing is, like, his level was much higher in the fourth set, and mine was too. The fourth set was I think the only set where it was, like, pretty good tennis from the baseline consistently from both of us. I think both of us cut down a lot on just the mistakes in the fourth.

You know, I think he gave me a lot more mistakes than he normally does and gave me a lot more looks. I wasn't doing much, and I was getting all those breakpoint chances the first two sets.

So realistically, like, I just can't come out of those first two sets down two sets to love. Like, I need to play better. That's the thing that's frustrating is I don't need to play that much better to make it happen, because I had all the chances I had playing how I was playing, and I just need to serve a little bit better too. I was serving pretty poorly the first two sets.

At the end of the day, that's one of the things that makes, like, the great players great. They win the big points, and that's something that I kind of touched on before the match is, like, I'm going to need to go out and take those points from him. He's not just going to hand them over to me.

That's exactly what happened. A lot of my weapons, aggressive shots were just not there, letting me down. So I felt like it was tough for me to go out and take those points.

Q. You mentioned Novak's serve coming into this match. What was he doing tonight? Looked like he was showing you a lot of different looks. Can you kind of break down what was so good about his serve tonight?

TAYLOR FRITZ: Yeah, I mean, I think he always serves well, like, on his first serves. He hits his spots well. He gets a good amount of free points and aces. I thought I did a decent job putting returns in the court.

I think what's made it tough in the past is how much variance there is in his second serve. I'd love to attack his second serve more, but it's tough, because sometimes he throws in, like, kind of like a softer serve in the middle of the box or to the backhand, but it's tough to attack those when I'm also, like, very kind of ready for this big second serve that he goes into the forehand on.

Especially on the ad side. He loves to hit like a 110, almost like a three-quarter first serve, like, slider into the forehand. To be honest, he does it every time we play. It's pretty embarrassing the amount of times that I was sitting on it, waiting for it, and still missed the return. I just can't really let that happen.

Yeah, it's tough to attack sometimes the easier ones, because I'm also kind of waiting for the bigger one that he does.

Q. There are plenty of people who say that the idea of Novak Djokovic going through you and then Carlos and then Jannik seems impossible. What are your thoughts about Novak, having played him tonight in this match?

TAYLOR FRITZ: It's tough to say, because I think that -- like I said, I think the level increased a lot in the fourth set. He served better. He made a lot less mistakes. He played better in the fourth I think.

The first three sets I think -- you know, I don't think either one of us played our best tennis. I think that it just depends how much this one took out of him. I really can't speak for him. I'm not sure.

But, I mean, I was really excited at the fact that kind of like that's what I was looking at in the draw, oh, I will have the opportunity to do the coolest thing ever, play Novak, potentially try to go through Novak, Carlos, and Sinner. I thought that was kind of cool. I like the challenge.

I'm sure he, being the challenger he is, is very excited for that challenge.