US OPEN

August 23, 2025

Taylor Fritz

Press Conference

An interview with:

TAYLOR FRITZ

THE MODERATOR: Taylor, welcome back to the US Open. Can you please tell us how the preparation has been going and about your first round tomorrow against Emilio, who you played in Cincinnati recently.

TAYLOR FRITZ: Yeah, practice has been pretty solid. It's been a busy week for me, for sure. I feel like I'm playing pretty good tennis, and yeah, hoping to get by the match on Sunday. I will have a match, then two more days to, you know, keep touching up the game and feeling good.

Yeah, I think Emilio, it's a tough match. I think the match in Cincy was very close. I didn't really have any looks to break him outside of the two games that I did break him.

Yeah, I mean, he's a big server, big hitter. I think it can be a really tough match.

THE MODERATOR: Questions.

Q. When you leave here, you'll go straight to Delray and get ready for the Davis Cup, and then go on to Laver Cup with the same three guys. You're great buddies. Can you talk about that camaraderie a little bit and what makes it so special, particularly the four of you?

TAYLOR FRITZ: Yeah, I mean, as far as it goes with, like, Frances and Tommy, like, I have known them for since I was, like, pretty young, like over ten years. Then obviously Ben has kind of come in the last couple of years, but we all get along really well. Those are some of my absolute closest friends. You know, I have known them for so long. We are traveling all around the world together for so long.

Yeah, I'm excited. These team events where I get to spend a lot of time with them is always a lot of fun.

Q. Last year at the Laver Cup, Frances had a tough loss, and it kind of turned the tide a little bit. What can you do for each other in those tough moments?

TAYLOR FRITZ: I mean, we just cheer each other on, pump each other up. Last year it came down to Frances and myself at the end, and both of us lost.

The year that we won it for the first time, which was the most exciting one, London, it kind of came, it was the reverse. It came down to myself and Frances. Before Frances went out and played, we kind of, like, we were pumping each other up. I was, like, Go out and get this. If not, Play free, don't worry. I got it.

One of us just had to win, and so we just pump each other up and cheer each other on. It gives that extra bit of energy when we're playing.

Q. In the men's side, it's been the most unpredictable slam, 20 years since someone defended it. From your perspective why that might be? If it's a calendar thing or other factors, as well.

TAYLOR FRITZ: It's really tough to say, to be honest. I don't actually know. I think it could just be towards the end of the year, a lot of tennis has been played. People's bodies in different spots. I don't know, to be honest. It's just really tough to say. Might be just a coincidence.

Q. Wondering if you can talk about your experience playing mixed doubles last week and if you followed the tournament and were surprised with how it all turned out at the end?

TAYLOR FRITZ: Yeah, I was really excited to play. I was pretty disappointed at our performance as a team. We had really high hopes. I think that we, both of us, Elena and I, expected to play a lot better. The format is very fast, so it felt like not a ton of time to settle in. You kind of make one mistake, and then the set's over.

I had a lot of fun. I thought it was great that, you know, there is a lot of buzz around it, and the fans seemed to enjoy it. It's something that I would want to do again, for sure.

Q. I know you have been to New York a number of times. This is a non-tennis question and you're a southern California guy. You have a lot of sponsor responsibilities when you're here. But are you able to enjoy New York? What are you doing when you're not practicing and strategizing about the Open? Do you have time to do things?

TAYLOR FRITZ: I mean, the last couple of years, no, because of all the obligations and commitments I have. Outside of that and the practice and the driving back and forth from here to the city.

I think any bit of, like, time that I get, I really just want to relax and recover. It's a really, yeah, I mean, the lead-in weeks for me have just been really busy. I haven't gotten out to do too much. If I get the chance I just like to go out to, like, a nice dinner.

Q. You have worked in New York Fashion Week before. Why do you like being so involved on the fashion side?

TAYLOR FRITZ: Yeah, in the future I'd love to do stuff like that again and walk in shows and stuff.

Probably pretty busy after this one. I don't know if that's going to be possible. The schedule is getting tighter and tighter. But when it allows it, yeah, it's something I enjoy doing.

I don't know what really. It's drawn me in. I just think that it's something fun to do that I think suits me well, and it's just different from what I normally do.

Q. What's your perspective on what Jannik and Carlos have done the last two years, their effect on the rest of the field, knowing that they're the obstacles eventually in the field?

TAYLOR FRITZ: I mean, yeah, they've both, like, improved a lot. I mean, you would expect it because they're both a bit... They're younger, so they're still improving, getting better. They have taken massive strides over the last two years to become very clear, dominant players.

I think they motivate the rest of the guys to improve, because you're going to have to improve a lot if you want to, you know, beat them and contend for the biggest titles.

Q. You were saying about the mixed. There was only one doubles specialist pair. You had to play them. But seeing them on court, what they were doing, and also winning the whole tournament, did it change your perceptions at all, or do you think outlier? How did that challenge your premonitions about it?

TAYLOR FRITZ: Yeah, I can't argue with just the fact that they won the event, you know. They obviously played really well. They did a lot of things that were different.

I do think that, again, like I said, I don't think we played our best. I would have liked to play better. I think the short format didn't give us a lot of time to adapt to, you know, the things they were doing and how much they were moving and stuff like that. I think it was difficult.

But yeah, like I said, I can't argue with the facts that they won. What I was basing what I said off of just my experience playing doubles, I always play with singles players, and a lot of times I partner with a singles player for the first time, and we end up doing pretty well against doubles teams.

So I guess mixed might be a different story. But yeah, like I said, I can't argue with the fact that they won (smiling).

Q. Watching tennis, from my perspective, seems like these days more guys are sometimes going more big with their second serves more often, and seems like that's been a shift. How do you feel about just the quality of second serves have improved over the years since you have been on tour?

TAYLOR FRITZ: Yeah, I think -- I would agree, definitely. When I was a bit younger, I think second serves were a bit more attackable. I think people maybe kicked the serve a bit more, maybe put it in the same spot a bit more.

The way I see it nowadays, if someone stands really far back, people are more okay with just kind of kicking it in, and there is not as much variety. They won't be as risky with the second one if someone is really far back returning, because you're probably not going to accomplish much or taking a risk for kind of no reason if the person is returning the second at the fence.

But I do find when people are trying to step in and take the second serve early and attack the second serve, yeah, people won't really let that happen. They will start mixing up the spots more, going hard body, be a bit more aggressive.

I think that's kind of always been my philosophy forever. I mean, someone's going to stand close, I'm going to be aggressive with my second. I don't want to feel like they can attack it.

And I think a lot of people are doing that nowadays. It gets pretty tough to take second serves early with people, taking a bit more of a chance, just mixing it up a bit more.

Q. You're returning after making the final last year. Players that have a great run at a Grand Slam, it could go either way when they return. There's pressure to back up the performance and defend points, but there also might be the fact that you return to a venue and feel great vibes because of the feelings from 12 months ago. Where do you fall on that spectrum?

TAYLOR FRITZ: I think for me it's always a bit of, honestly, all the slams, every tournament I have high hopes or expectations for, I think it's always, like, the first maybe round or two there is a bit of nerves, but if you can get past that and settle in, you start to feel like you said that confidence and you have been here before, played well.

I think if you can just kind of, yeah, get past the initial nerves, then you start to settle into the tournament and really play well. And that's how it is for me at a lot of big events, would I say.