US OPEN

August 27, 2025

Taylor Fritz

Press Conference

T. FRITZ/L. Harris

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

THE MODERATOR: If you would, your thoughts on your play today.

TAYLOR FRITZ: I think it was a tough match. It was pretty windy out there, and I feel like kind of just a lot of shots weren't necessarily working for me. So I had to kind of adapt and accept it and kind of just work with what I had, do what I could do.

In the end I think I could have done a lot of things better, but I kind of just buckled down, did my best not to get frustrated that certain things weren't kind of going for me. Yeah, like I said, kind of played within myself on the day, did what I could do, and happy to get it done.

THE MODERATOR: Questions.

Q. That first set that Harris took, how would you evaluate his tennis?

TAYLOR FRITZ: Sorry. His tennis or my -- what did you say?

Q. How would you evaluate Lloyd Harris as a player?

TAYLOR FRITZ: Lloyd is the same age as me. I've known Lloyd forever. He's dangerous because he's solid from the back. He doesn't make a ton of mistakes, and he has a very good serve, so it's one of those if you're not on, it's very easy to kind of just -- I mean, what happened in the first, you know, I had some chances to break. He played well to save the break points.

Then I played a little bit of a sloppier game, and he hit some good shots, then he breaks me in that set. That's all it takes to drop a set. He's a very solid player.

Q. What's your thought about how necessary it is to apologize after hitting a lucky net cord? Players get huffy about that sometimes.

TAYLOR FRITZ: If someone does it to me and doesn't apologize, I don't care at all, to be honest. If anything, I think it's probably going to fire me up, and I'll play better because maybe that pisses me off.

I wouldn't make a big deal about it. For me it's just, like, at this point just a reflex. If I win a point in a cheesy way with a net cord, I'll be, like, My bad.

I also think it's fine to be, like, My bad, then if it's a big point, celebrate a little bit afterwards. If the point itself before that was good, then a little celebration. But yeah, for me it's just common courtesy. I don't really care too much.

Q. You notice when someone doesn't do it, you're saying?

TAYLOR FRITZ: To be honest, maybe. I feel like I just assume they do. Sometimes I don't even look.

Q. Can I just ask a question about Carlos? He's not had, by his standards, best results on hard the past couple of years. You've played him on hard, indoors, outdoors, and played him on grass. I wondered the differences you've found playing him on those different surfaces.

TAYLOR FRITZ: I feel like his results have been pretty good, no?

Q. Yeah.

TAYLOR FRITZ: I'll take it.

Q. Since he won the US Open, he hasn't got to a hard court semi, but given in that time he's won a ton on the others, yeah, I'm just kind of curious how different he is playing on the...

TAYLOR FRITZ: It's tough to say because hard courts can vary a lot. We played at Laver Cup. I felt like it's super slow, dead conditions. It's, like, he played well that day. I don't want to see him in a condition like that. It feels like no matter what I do, it's so tough to put the ball away. It's not too hard for him to put the ball away.

I mean, that's a big difference to then something like Miami when we played, and it's really fast. No, I mean, I think he can play on pretty much anything. He has so much variety in his game. I don't think it really matters so much, the surface. I think it's more like how he's feeling and how locked in he is.

Q. I want to ask you a question about where you came of age in tennis. Bob and Mike were in the Hall of Fame last week. Maria played a lot there. A lot of Southern Californians. How do you think being from Southern California helped your rise in tennis?

TAYLOR FRITZ: I would say being in Southern California helped because it's just a really strong section. A lot of good players. I feel like I didn't leave to play, like, outside of Southern California that much when I was younger until maybe when I got a little bit older, I started to play all the really big ones.

Yeah, I never had to really travel too much to play against a lot of really good players.

Q. There's such tradition about your mom also and going back.

TAYLOR FRITZ: It's tough not to -- like I say a lot, it's tough for me not to get into tennis with my family. My dad being an ex-player and a coach. My mom being an ex-top-10 player. I think it is pretty hard to not get into it.

Q. You've talked about wanting to play at certain times of day and try to make those requests, but this year they've reduced the number of matches on Armstrong from three to two, and in general it seems like there have been a lot of changes to the schedule. There are fewer courts in use the last couple of days and a lot of crowded courts. I'm just curious if you have had more difficulty getting the courts you've wanted and the times you've wanted and if there's been a larger discussion among the players about the changes.

TAYLOR FRITZ: Yeah, absolutely. There's a lot less time slots. Then it doesn't help I'm on the same side of the draw as Novak, Carlos, Ben, Frances. It makes it way harder than you would think for being the No. 1 American playing the US Open to actually play when you want to play. It's very tough.

Rightfully so with all the people that are such a big draw in my half of the draw. That's the way it is. And I don't really mind so much, I guess, when I play, as long as it's not first. The big thing that we've kind of been dealing with these first two rounds is just, like, I just want to know ahead of time so I can schedule practice.

I was told potentially the schedule is going to be coming out, and I was going to be second night match 30 minutes before my practice at 1:00 p.m. yesterday.

I was, like, That's cool, I'll play that. I'm down to play that time, but I need to know so I can practice at night. It's a really big difference, you know.

That's kind of my only complaint. There's, like I said, different time slots, a lot of people. I know I'm not going to always get the time that I want with just how all the people that need to play. But, yeah, I just would like to know so I can prepare on the day off.

Q. When did you know that Lloyd had an injury? Was it when he had his medical time-out? Did that impact how you played after you realized he was injured?

TAYLOR FRITZ: Yeah, I didn't really know what was going on, because I felt like there was like a couple game stretch where he was maybe not moving as much. Then after one of the medical time-outs, I felt like, okay, his serve lost a little bit of pop, but he was still hitting, like, 120 on the flat serve. Maybe he lost, like, 5 miles per hour.

Then at the end of the match when I got broken at 5-2, I thought he played, like, one of the most insane games ever. He was like running everywhere, and then I'm, like, okay, I'm not sure what's going on.

The way I kind of looked at it was I think he had maybe like a couple of flare-ups of some injuries and then it calmed down, and he felt better. I wasn't totally sure, because like I said, there were times I thought he seemed a little off, and then there was times where I thought that he looked normal.

I don't actually know exactly what it was. Like I said, I think it probably was some things flared up and then maybe got better, but I tried to just play the same.

Like I say, when he's playing some really good points, it's very easy for me to play the same and not think, like, something's wrong, because when someone is really obviously injured, then yeah, it can almost tighten you up a little bit of times.

Q. I saw a video of you bringing out the pancake serve last week in training. We've seen you do it a few times. I'm curious what's the origin of that? How did you learn it? How would you rate it in terms of difficulty? I'm not sure maybe you have, but have you ever brought it out in an actual match before?

TAYLOR FRITZ: Yeah, I've done it a couple of times. I do it a lot in doubles, to be honest. I do a ton in doubles.

I've done it in a couple of singles matches, but not in a while. I think if I ever do it and -- the thing is I think it's good, but if I do it and then lose the point and then I'm going to get so tight because I know if I get broken, my coaches are going to lose it on me.

I was actually thinking about doing it today when I was serving for the match because I just could not get a free point at 5-2, and I had so many match points. I was like, low key, like it might actually work just to break the rhythm, but you know, I refrain from it.

I remember seeing one of my friends when I was really young warming up. His dad was actually doing it to have him practice. He played, like, a lefty, boys 12s or 14s. He was playing a lefty, and his dad was doing it to simulate the lefty, like, curve on the serve.

Then at some point I just started messing around with it and got pretty good at it. It's basically, like -- I think if you have like a western forehand grip like I do, it's probably not too hard to pick up because you're kind of just hitting like in a way like a high forehand if you have, like, my grip. It's hard to explain, but yeah, it's taken some time.

I've gotten pretty good at it. I was happy they got that one on camera, because that one was pretty funny.

Q. I would just kind of like to ask a random question. During your career, what are the two or three strokes which were the toughest, the most impressive, that you have faced from your opponents?

TAYLOR FRITZ: I would say, like, del Potro forehand. I guess I never faced him in a match, but like practice and playing, you know. Del Potro forehand.

Maybe like a Fed slice. When Fed just kept the slice really low, it felt impossible not to just lift the ball up and then he'd tee off.

Then I think it's fair to say, like, Isner's serve.