US OPEN

September 3, 2026

Taylor Fritz

Press Conference

T. FRITZ/M. Bellucci

6-0, 6-1, 6-1

THE MODERATOR: Taylor, congratulations. Overpowering win. Your thought on your level of play today?

TAYLOR FRITZ: I thought I played really well today. I came out, felt good from the beginning. Things were clicking for me, and I was very focused the whole match.

It was a very high level for me.

THE MODERATOR: Questions.

Q. He is a tricky opponent. You've guys have had a tough match before. What do you think made this so lopsided?

TAYLOR FRITZ: Yeah, I mean, I think he played really well when we played before in Stuttgart. I felt like for a set and almost the entire second set when we played in Stuttgart, I thought he was playing just incredible.

I think grass makes it so his serve is good enough to where I can't really get on it, and he's going to hold a lot more. I think it's good for his backhand as well.

But these conditions I think -- I mean, I'm on his serve a lot more. I can put a lot more turns in play. The backhand is not coming through as fast, so I can handle it with my forehand cross more.

I can have that extra time to step around as well and, like, look for forehands off of when he lifts his forehand cross, which is something I can't really do on grass. If I step around it, it's not going to sit up for me.

Even though I love grass, I do think these conditions are better for me.

Q. So Max over there once told me that there were, like, seven times in his career where he felt like he had his best stuff. I'm curious if you think today was one of those times for you?

TAYLOR FRITZ: I mean, I don't know if I would, like, for sure say I'd put it up there, like one of the best matches I've ever played, but things were definitely clicking for me. Things felt really good for me. I can't really nitpick.

I would nitpick a lot to come up with anything that I did wrong, because I felt like, you know, all the important parts of my game that make me feel like I'm playing good tennis and feel confident, like, it was all working for me.

Q. You've played in the same spot both days, and you win in, like, 1:40, and Ashe sits empty for three hours. One, would there be a solution to have another match there? Two, with the late starts, late finishes, do you worry that they would say, you know, you're a fast player, we need to put you at night, even if you didn't necessarily want that?

TAYLOR FRITZ: No, I don't think they'd put me in a specific spot just because they're thinking about my potential match times. I don't think that they would consider that.

Yeah, I mean, in hindsight, obviously it looks like they could put another match, but it gets dangerous if you schedule that. I don't think you can be moving people around at a slam, because everyone is preparing specifically to play on the court that they're going to play on.

It's not easy to just tell someone, Hey, we're moving you to Ashe last second. Then if you plan ahead of time to put an extra match there, that's when you can get, you know, really long, backed-up days if one of the matches happens to go long. You can't really bank on a men's match always finishing in three.

Q. Two wins, two very straightforward wins. A lot of players talk about the importance of conserving their body and energy at the beginning of slams. Do you feel better after these two wins? If you can compare how you feel as opposed to some of the other slams where it's been more difficult, how you feel physically now after two matches.

TAYLOR FRITZ: Yeah, I feel great. I think it is really important to not kill yourself in the first couple of matches, because you need to have the energy to potentially do that later on in the week.

You know, at the end of the day, you do get a day off, but anyone will tell you one day is not enough to recover from a five-set match. It's just not. You can come back and still play good, but it's not enough to fully recover.

It's good to get through these the way that I've gotten through these, and yeah, I think the one today gives me a lot more confidence than the first-round match.

I think the first-round match I played okay, but today, you know, everything was really working for me. It definitely gives me a lot of confidence.

Q. My perception is that nowadays there are more and more players willing to change their return position in a match. For example, Jannik, we'll see him second-serve return on the baseline the whole time, and then on a break point suddenly he's back at the back fence. I'm curious, is that effective at all? Also, as a server, how much do you think about the return position of your opponent versus just hitting your spots and your favorite serve?

TAYLOR FRITZ: I think for sure. For sure it's effective. If you as a returner feel confident that you can switch it up and still make the return, I think it's a great strategy.

I think for me, sometimes if I'm consistently standing in one spot and it's like it feels okay, it's not an easy call to just go back to the fence on a break point, because now you're hitting from a spot where you haven't really hit from before. But if you feel confident doing that, I think it's a great strategy because it makes your opponent think a lot.

I would say once you step back, especially on a second serve, the chances your opponent is going to take a risk with their second serve, I'd say goes down a lot, because the level of a serve you have to hit to hurt somebody when they're at the fence on a second serve, it's so risky, as opposed to if someone is close, you can get rewarded a lot more for more aggressive second serve.

If you want to kind of just like find yourself in the rally in the point, I think going back is a really solid strategy. And I think it works great for those guys, because once you start the point, I mean, they beat pretty much anybody from the baseline.

So it's a good strategy if you feel comfortable doing it.

Q. (Off microphone.)

TAYLOR FRITZ: It just depends on who it is. Some people like to guess a bit more than others. I think the obvious thing is when someone goes back further, they're more susceptible to being cut off the court with, like, a slower, shorter ball. I think serving like the slow cutter is great when someone is really far back.

But more than anything, if someone is far back, the spots matter more. If somebody is closer, the spots don't matter as much, but they might hit a better return if they're on it. If someone is far back, there's a higher chance that the return is going to come back if you don't place the serve really well.

Q. Obviously you were keeping the main thing the main thing and just looking at whoever is next, but I'm curious, when you see the draw and you see how it has -- how so many top players either have been injured or have been upset since they got here, do you look at this as an increased or improved opportunity for you or another American male to break through in a slam? And if you don't, then how do you kind of avoid that natural human reaction and not let that creep in your head?

TAYLOR FRITZ: I think obviously it's a good opportunity for the Americans. Not because the draw is opening. I think just because there's a lot of guys that are at that level and can play at that level.

When you look at it, like... I've said this a couple of times. I've been asked this a lot this week. It's, like, none of that affects me until I'm in the semis or the finals. I would never play any of those guys earlier than that, so there's no reason to have a different mentality than I normally would.

If I can take it one match at a time and get to that point in the draw, then it's, like, nice, I don't need to play -- I don't need to play this person. I have maybe a little more of an opportunity at that point, but I don't think the opportunity doesn't really exist until deep, deep into the tournament.

So I kind of need to worry about getting myself to that point before I start putting extra pressure on myself. Like, it's more open, I have more of a chance, because the rest of the tournament is, you know, up until that point it's the same as it always is.

Q. When you are able to wrap up two matches like this fairly quickly and you have all this extra time, I guess instead of playing four three-and-a-half hour matches, is there anything you do to take advantage of the extra time, your routine? Do you add anything, or do you not tennis-wise?

TAYLOR FRITZ: No, I'll do the same thing I normally do. I'd say because I'm playing second on, I'm not playing later in the day, because it's a bit of an earlier match, and I'm able to finish up quick. Maybe I can go out and do a dinner tonight or something like that.

But, I mean, outside of that, I keep everything about the same as I always do. I'm very, like, routine-oriented. Kind of just keep things how they are.

Q. Kind of piggybacking off that idea of the seven perfect matches, just are there days when you go out there, and the first couple of shots of the match you feel like, oh, I'm hitting the lines, I'm hitting the corners, and that allows you to kind of play freely, swing through the court --

TAYLOR FRITZ: For sure.

Q. -- and maybe even work on things you've been doing in practice?

TAYLOR FRITZ: I don't know if I'd go as far as to say I'm going to work on things in a Grand Slam match, but for sure, I can feel it from the start.

You just have a very good feeling when the ball is on your strings. You feel like you have very good control. It's going where you want it to go. You know your mind is working well.

You know what shot you should be hitting. You're not second-guessing any decisions you're making. You know pretty early on. I knew it from the first game. I was, like, hitting my forehand really clean and aggressive.

I mean, then same goes the other way, too. You know it from the first game sometimes when it doesn't feel good, and you're going to have to find your range. But, yeah, for sure, today from the first game it felt really clean, the ball striking.