US OPEN

September 5, 2026

Taylor Fritz

Press Conference

F. CERUNDOLO/T. Fritz

3-6, 4-6, 6-3, 6-4, 6-4

THE MODERATOR: Questions.

Q. Tough one today. Things seemed to be going really well the first couple of sets, and then you get the early break in the third. Can you just tell us what you think sort of started to happen there in the third and fourth?

TAYLOR FRITZ: I mean, it was nothing that I think wasn't already kind of happening. I was, you know, lucky to get through the first and the second sets, just because he wasn't serving great. He was making some mistakes. So I was able to get breaks and then just kind of fight through, like, service games.

Like, he had so many opportunities to break me. I was playing very good from the baseline. He was making some mistakes on those points. I played some of those points pretty well. I just needed to serve a bit better.

He played a very good game to break me to start the -- to get the break back in the third. It was kind of just the same thing that had been happening, as I wasn't serving as well as I normally do.

On top of that, he's a very good -- like a very, very good returner. I think it made it look even -- or feel even worse as well, the fact that I wasn't really hitting my spots enough on the serve. He was punishing me more than maybe a normal person would.

Q. I imagine on the scale of your disappointments, this one is pretty high given the way you were playing?

TAYLOR FRITZ: I mean, yeah. I don't even know what to say. I don't want to, like -- I don't really want to talk to anybody, see anybody. I kind of just need to, like, get out for a couple days and then just kind of get back to work.

I don't know how I let that happen today.

Q. I just was curious generally about the knee and if you feel like the rehab you've been doing, and you had the fits and starts this year, has started to pay off and you felt fine on it this tournament?

TAYLOR FRITZ: Yeah, I'd say there's no doubt that tomorrow morning I'm going to be, like, a little -- it's going to feel a little stiff. It's not something that ever came into effect in this match.

I was moving full the entire match all the way up until the end of the fifth set. I felt like I was giving it everything I had, and it wasn't an issue.

Q. It's been episodic, so does it feel like it's resolving at this point?

TAYLOR FRITZ: It's getting better. If I win this match, who knows where it's at for the next? Maybe it's good; maybe it's bad. I don't want to speak too soon, because I started to be really positive about it during the grass court season, and then out of nowhere I felt it in the quarters.

Who knows? But, you know, the fact that I could play, like, however many matches I played in Washington, a lot of the times back-to-back days, and then the whole hard-court swing and here and be practicing a lot as well, I mean, it's definitely moving in the right direction.

Q. You were able to kind of stave off a lot of those break point opportunities the first two sets, whatever it was, 11 of 13, 13 of 16, whatever it was, and the last three sets, in your mind, was there anything specific that kind of changed in those sets where you weren't able to do that in those?

TAYLOR FRITZ: I mean, he definitely got more confident in his shots. He played a lot better.

From the baseline I felt like what won me the first two sets was that from the baseline I was playing really well, and I think that he started playing more aggressive and making less mistakes. It just makes it tougher.

I felt like he went pretty far back, and his quality of ball was good. I started to have a very hard time, like, hurting him. It felt like I had to take a lot of risk to hit a point-ending shot. It felt like he didn't have to.

It just felt like a lot easier for him to dictate points than it did for me.

Q. Taylor, how would you describe the mental challenge when he started that comeback in the third set with a break through the rest of the match? What were you dealing with both physically and mentally?

TAYLOR FRITZ: I mean, to be honest, I didn't think it was anything to really, like, worry myself about, because if I start, like, freaking out too much about, like, the fact that I lost a set, then it becomes, I guess, more of a problem. I was pretty relaxed about it.

I just told myself, you know, the simple thing is I need to start serving better. And I felt like in the fifth I did, and I had my chances. I, you know, had Love-40 to go serve for the match, and unfortunately -- I mean, I had one return that I probably could have made.

But the other two he had really good serves, and that's something that he did a full, like, 180 on throughout the match. The first set, two and a half sets, I felt like he wasn't serving great. When he made his first serves, the spots weren't always great, and the percentage was not super high.

Then I felt like the fourth and fifth he served incredible, spots great. He served really well. He served himself out of trouble in the fifth.

My level from the baseline just declined a little bit. I wasn't hitting the ball as good as I was earlier in the match. When that happens, it gets a little tougher to play those pressure moments, because I'm a bit more unsure about my ball striking.