THE CHAMPIONSHIPS

July 8, 2026

Taylor Fritz

Press Conference

A. ZVEREV/T. Fritz

6-4, 6-4, 6-2

THE MODERATOR: Taylor, obviously didn't go your way today. Tell us maybe what wasn't working for you today.

TAYLOR FRITZ: Yeah, I mean, I don't really know what to say. I feel like three games in the match, he was already up a break, but three games in the match, started feeling my knee. I think I could have, still probably think I could have played a lot better through the issue.

I mean, preface what I'm saying by I don't really think -- I don't know what kind of difference it would have made in the match. He's going to be extremely tough to beat the way he's serving. He was very aggressive with his forehand and his backhand as well. Very aggressive. Hit the ball great. He played really well.

Wasn't the match that I was expecting. I would say I would have liked to feel 100% and try to give him a match. Yeah, I don't know. I don't know what to say. I don't know why I felt like that today.

THE MODERATOR: Questions, please.

Q. It was pretty clear early on you were in trouble with the knee. Had it been hurting you before you stepped on the court today?

TAYLOR FRITZ: I kind of wish, I almost wish I knew before so I could have just, like, prepared to play a match where I was going to be kind of playing through it, 'cause I felt like the whole first set I was, like I said, three games in is when I started feeling it. I was already down a break.

I was just like panicking, What am I going to do? I just didn't expect it at all. The only signs I had were I had some pain towards the very end of my match with Bublik. I was already up two sets and a break.

I thought maybe not the best sign that I was feeling it after that match, because it wasn't super physical. But typically it's how tendinitis is. He gets irritated sometimes. You give it a little bit of a rest, and then it feels better.

I expected, after a light day yesterday, to feel fine today. I felt fine, felt really good in my warm-up actually. Felt like my warm-up was great. Then, yeah, I have no answers as to why three games in it was like that.

Q. How tough is it to take, given how well you'd been playing up to that point?

TAYLOR FRITZ: Yeah, it's just sad. Also, I don't want to take away from, like, how well he's playing. I'm not saying the result would have been any different. Like, he was playing very aggressive, doing a lot of things that he, I'd say, are big improvements to his game.

He's changing direction a lot with the backhand. He's serving such high percentage, good spots. Really pulling the trigger with the forehand.

I mean, it would have been an incredibly tough match. I'm just really sad that I didn't get the chance to, like, get into it, I guess. I felt like just because I was thinking about the knee, my focus was kind of all over the place.

Q. Your impediment, knee aside, did you see anything that was radically different from Halle? Is it more disappointing considering there's a wild card in the next round?

TAYLOR FRITZ: The thing about Halle was he was affected by a medical issue. He was really struggling. I felt like the signs of what he was struggling with in Halle really started to show in like the second and third set.

The first set, honestly, the first set in Halle was similar to how he was playing here. Much more aggressive. He won the first set on me in Halle. Some key points in the tiebreaker, he pulled the trigger, was more aggressive than he normally is on some of the, like, pressure big points.

He's obviously playing with a lot of confidence right now. He's hitting his forehand the best I've seen him hit his forehand. I've noticed that throughout the tournament, just watching some of his matches.

He's playing with a lot of confidence. Naturally, when you're playing with a lot of confidence, you feel good about going for more and taking risks. You're just confident in your ball striking. You can tell that he is.

Q. A question about the conditions. With it being so hot, did the courts feel like hard courts almost the way the ball is flying and bouncing?

TAYLOR FRITZ: I didn't think it was like that hot, to be honest with you. It typically speeds up a bit. I feel like it was always going to feel a bit faster because he just naturally hits the ball faster than most guys.

It felt quick. I mean, like I said, he has a much higher average ball speed than most guys.

Q. Are you considering something different to take care about your knee? In Turin after the ATP Finals, you said, I need some time to rest because it's the only way. Then you took some time to rest in the clay season. You came back, played a lot, now you're struggling again. Is there any possible different solution?

TAYLOR FRITZ: Well, maybe there's a misunderstanding.

Rest isn't the way to fix knee tendinitis. I mean, it's not loading it to a certain extent, which obviously is going to be time away from playing, like, really physical tennis matches. That helps.

It's not like when I'm home and not playing tournaments, I'm resting. It's a lot of strengthening, and you want to push it. There's a certain amount of pain that's acceptable when you're trying to strengthen and regrow the tendon.

That's what I've done. That's what all my scans since November have shown, is that I am regrowing and strengthening the tendon. In November there was just a hole there, so...

I'm surprised about today, because I thought if I was going to show signs of it flaring up on me, I felt like it would have already happened. I played 9 matches in 11 days between Stuttgart and Halle. I think five or six of those were three-set matches. I felt like if it was going to happen, it would have already happened. That's why I'm just really disappointed, sad today.

Didn't even happen three sets into the match. It was like three games, and I was already feeling it. It's tough to say. It's just an odd injury. Just because there's pain doesn't mean that it's not a lot better than it was.

I'll get another scan, and I'll see where we're at. There's a very high chance that just all the playing has flared it up. If I took a couple days off, it would probably be back to baseline.

Q. Do you have any sense if this could impact your planned summer schedule, which is probably Washington, Canada, Cincy?

TAYLOR FRITZ: We'll see. I think the positive thing about playing in Canada and Cincinnati is just the days off in between matches. I think that's something that's going to help a lot.

Obviously I won't play the week before the Open. That's what I've been doing in the past. Going into the Open, it should be similar to how it felt going into here.

Like I said, I need to get a scan. At this point I have so many different scans I can compare. Each one has looked better than the last, so...

Kind of just see where we're at. I think if we were on the calendar schedule that we were on last year, then D.C. would be kind of out of the question for me. This year it's like a week backed up. There will be plenty of time for me to rest it, get back on my rehab program, just kind of see how it feels.

Q. You might not care, but how would you see the semifinal between Zverev and Fery?

TAYLOR FRITZ: It's tough to say. I didn't get to watch the match today obviously. I don't know. I do think Zverev is going to be incredibly tough to beat just with how well he's serving.

That's not something that I feel like really changes from day to day with him. I feel like you can kind of expect that he's going to show up and serve at least 70% first serves, bombs. He's playing with a lot of confidence.

We'll see if the crowd, playing obviously someone that he's a big favorite over, we'll see if that can cause any kind of an issue. Yeah, he's playing with a lot of confidence and he's playing really well. It's going to be an interesting one.