Fritz, Taylor Harry (1997- )
Subterms
More stories
- in Tennis
Finally, Taylor Fritz Forces His Way Into the Top 10
Fritz’s breakthrough in the ATP rankings is the latest sign of a resurgence for American men’s tennis, though these are not yet the good old days. Not even close.SAN DIEGO — With the American tennis star Taylor Fritz stuck in his hotel room in Seoul last month with Covid-19 and a high fever, his longtime goal of breaking into the ATP top 10 seemed just out of reach again.But that was before Fritz hopped on a stationary bike to stay in shape and then hopped on a flight from Seoul to Tokyo last Wednesday after a mandatory week in isolation, just in time for his next tournament. Four days later, he won the Japan Open, defeating his compatriot Frances Tiafoe in the final. Welcome to the top 10 at last, as the ATP rankings made clear on Monday with Fritz at No. 8.“It’s definitely one of those goals you have your whole life,” Fritz said after arriving back in Los Angeles. “It’s not the end goal by any means, and I don’t want to make people think that because I’m celebrating it, but it’s a huge milestone and no one is ever going to take that away from me.”It also makes him the second top-10 player in his tennis family. Fritz’s mother, Kathy May, joined that club in 1977 on the WTA Tour. Fritz’s father, Guy, peaked at No. 301 in the ATP singles rankings in 1979. “I do think it would be cool to be highest ranked in the family,” Fritz said.Fritz’s breakthrough is the latest sign of resurgence for American men’s tennis. These are not yet the good old days, not even close. Americans often dominated the tour in the late 20th century with serial champions such as John McEnroe, Pete Sampras and Andre Agassi. Andy Roddick, who won the U.S. Open in 2003, remains the last American man to win a major singles title or reach No. 1.But it would be churlish not to acknowledge the progress in 2022 with Tiafoe making a stirring run to the semifinals of the U.S. Open last month and the big-serving Fritz winning three titles and putting together his finest season with the cameras often rolling behind the scenes. (He is one of the players being followed for a “Drive to Survive” style series on Netflix.) He is the first American man in the top 10 since John Isner in June 2019 and the first American man to make his top-10 debut since Jack Sock in November 2017.Fritz, left, and Tiafoe, both 24, are the two highest ranked Americans on the ATP Tour.Kimimasa Mayama/EPA, via ShutterstockBoth Fritz and the 17th-ranked Tiafoe are 24 years old, which given the increased staying power of men’s tennis players most likely means that their best years are ahead of them. The Fritz-Tiafoe duel in Tokyo, an ATP 500 event, was the fifth all-American men’s singles final on tour this season. Of the seven other American men ranked in the top 50, six are age 25 or younger: Tommy Paul, Maxime Cressy, Reilly Opelka, Jenson Brooksby, Brandon Nakashima and Sebastian Korda.“Everyone’s just been constantly improving over the last couple years, and now it’s finally at the point where some of the big guys are dropping out or are a little more beatable than they used to be,” Fritz said. “A lot of the people at the top right now and having lots of success are people we played growing up and we all know we can beat. I see no reason why there’s not going to be four or five Americans in the top 20 in two years.”The caveat is that Carlos Alcaraz, the beguiling new men’s No. 1, is even younger than the leaders of the new American wave. Alcaraz, a 19-year-old Spaniard, beat Tiafoe in five sets on his way to winning the U.S. Open. Jannik Sinner, a devastating ball striker from Italy who is widely and rightly considered the next best young talent in the world, is 21.The American renaissance will clearly continue to face plenty of resistance, including a still-formidable Novak Djokovic. But that is no reason for Fritz not to savor Monday’s math. “I think regardless of what happens the next 10 years of my career, this will always probably be one of my biggest career achievements,” he said.Fritz, known since his junior days as a tenacious competitor, has made a habit of rebounding quickly. In 2021, less than a month after right knee surgery, he won two rounds at Wimbledon. This year, he won the biggest title of his career at the BNP Paribas Open after injuring his ankle in the final stages of the semifinal and screaming in pain during the warm-up session before his final against Rafael Nadal, who was dealing with a cracked rib.This time, Fritz had to bounce back twice. He lost in the first round of the U.S. Open to the American qualifier Brandon Holt, who had never won a main-draw singles match on tour. Brandon Holt with his mother, the former tennis player Tracy Austin, after he beat Fritz.Matthew Stockman/Getty Images“New York was a good learning experience,” Michael Russell, one of Fritz’s coaches, said. “He put way too much pressure on himself to perform at his home Slam as well as being able to manage all of the off-court obligations with being the top-ranked American there.”Fritz said it was bittersweet to follow the progress of Tiafoe, whom he has known since they were 14.“Obviously, I was happy for my friend; I think Frances deserved it,” Fritz said. “Over the years, he’s lost so many tight matches with top players that it was finally time for him to start winning those and go on a run, but at the same time I’m watching it, and it killed me. I felt like I should be there, too. I felt like my draw was good. I just had a shocking day.”Fritz quickly returned for team competition in Europe last month: helping the U.S. qualify for the Davis Cup final phase and then helping Team World defeat Team Europe for the first time in the Laver Cup, the event cocreated by Roger Federer that also served as his emotional retirement vehicle. In Federer’s last official match, he and his doubles partner, Nadal, were beaten by Sock and Tiafoe. Fritz said he was angry that his teammates received so much criticism on social media for playing at full throttle.“I definitely cried a lot more than I thought I was going to,” he said of Federer’s farewell. “But I was pretty upset to see how much hate Frances and Jack got for winning the match and Frances got for hitting Roger or hitting the ball at Rafa at net. This is not an exhibition. We are playing for a lot and for a lot of money. It bothered me a lot because I know Roger would have absolutely hated it if they just gave it to him.”Team World celebrated late into the night in London, and Fritz then caught a 12-hour flight to Seoul, only to test positive for Covid-19 the day after arrival, which kept him out of the Seoul tournament and left him with a spiking fever and sore throat despite being double vaccinated and boosted.Fritz was eventually able to start working out in his hotel room in Seoul: pedaling on a stationary bike and even bench pressing his girlfriend, Morgan Riddle, who had also tested positive for Covid, as she stretched out on her side in a bathrobe to turn herself into the equivalent of a barbell.Fritz soon returned to more conventional training methods and the tennis court in Tokyo: winning in three sets in the first round over James Duckworth after going a week without hitting a ball. Fritz then guaranteed his top-10 spot by beating Denis Shapovalov in another three-setter in the semifinals before defeating Tiafoe, 7-6 (3), 7-6 (2).Fritz guaranteed his top-10 spot with a win over Denis Shapovalov of Canada in their semifinal match in Tokyo.Kazuhiro Nogi/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images“Taylor was putting a lot of pressure on himself to get over that top 10 hurdle the last couple months,” Russell said. “Beating Shapo in the semis really freed up his mind for the final to play some of his best tennis.”Next goals: qualifying for the eight-man ATP Finals in Turin, Italy, next month and then cracking the top five and making “a big run” in a Grand Slam tournament in 2023. Whatever happens from here, he already has a good story to tell. “The fact I spent seven days in a hotel room and was able to fly the morning of the tournament and win a 500 is pretty crazy,” he said. More
- in Tennis
Taylor Fritz Almost Beat Rafael Nadal at Wimbledon. The Loss Still Hurts.
He had beaten Nadal earlier this year to win his first ATP Masters 1000 and is now representing Team World for the first time since 2019.Taylor Fritz leaned across the long table, his cheeks cupped in his hands, his face flushed with exhaustion and emotion.It was not long after Fritz had lost a four-hour, 21-minute Wimbledon quarterfinal to Rafael Nadal in July — a match that featured a fifth-set super tiebreaker in addition to a medical timeout to tend to Nadal’s torn abdominal muscle — and the magnitude of Fritz’s heartbreak engulfed the room.“I really, really wanted this match,” Fritz said at the time. “I was sitting there and felt like crying. I’ve never felt like that after a loss.”Six weeks later, the loss still stung.“Those kinds of matches hurt the most to lose,” Fritz said by phone just before the start of the United States Open. “It was my first major quarterfinal, so I had to take a step back and look at the positives. I was so close, so maybe next time I’ll get it.”Taylor Fritz lost in the quarterfinals of Wimbledon to Rafael Nadal in July. The match went to a super tiebreaker in the final fifth set.Kirsty Wigglesworth/Associated PressFritz has been highly thought of since he won the Junior U.S. Open in 2015. His mother, Kathy May, was ranked No. 10 in the world in 1977 and his father, Guy, is a coach.This year has been up and down for Fritz. The Californian, 24, is the top-ranked American male and No. 12 in the world. In March, he won his first ATP Masters 1000 tournament in Indian Wells, beating Nadal in the final.But just when he thought he was on track to win a major, Fritz was upset in the first round of the U.S. Open by the qualifier Brandon Holt, ranked No. 303 at the time. Fritz has also been nursing an ankle injury but is confident it won’t be an issue when he plays for Team World at the Laver Cup, which begins on Friday in London.The following conversation has been edited and condensed.The last time you played Laver Cup, in 2019, you lost to Stefanos Tsitsipas and beat Dominic Thiem. What brought you back now?I would have played every single year if I was invited to be on the team. It’s an honor to represent Team World and it’s such a fun, amazing event. Just the energy, it’s tough to find at anything like the team competition.What will it be like playing against Team Europe? It’s a pretty stacked team, with Roger Federer, Nadal, Novak Djokovic, Andy Murray, Casper Ruud and Tsitsipas.I look forward to it. I think that on any given day I can beat anybody, and that’s what the team is going to be asking of me, so I’m ready.You’ve talked a lot about innate confidence. Where does that come from?It’s just something I’ve always had. I’ve always felt that how can you ever succeed and be the best if you don’t believe that?Do you have a sports idol outside of tennis?Yeah, a big role model of mine is [the soccer star Cristiano] Ronaldo. His work ethic really made me a fan.Who would your ideal mixed doubles partner be?I suppose I’d have to say my mom.What’s the most important thing she taught you?Probably just to have fun with it and not take everything so seriously. My dad was much more into all the coaching and tennis stuff. My mom was more relaxed about it all.In terms of coaching, the smarter players are the ones who want to figure it out for themselves. Do you put yourself in that category?Absolutely, when it comes to being analytical and strategic on the court and figuring out what the opponent is doing, I feel like my tennis I.Q. is really high. I think it’s one of my best assets.You were 18 when you got married and had a son very young. Does Jordan understand who you are and what you do?Yeah, he’s 5 and he knows what I do. He’s pretty disappointed when I tell him that I’m actually not the best tennis player in the world. He kind of expects that, so it’s tough to impress him. More
- in Tennis
With Upset Over Taylor Fritz, Brandon Holt Is Making a Name for Himself
Holt, a qualifier who inherited tennis skills from his mother, the U.S. Open winner Tracy Austin, and his other pastime — music — from his father, is putting together a tidy run at the tournament.As the son of a famous tennis champion, Brandon Holt is often asked what he has taken from his mother, Tracy Austin, who won the United States Open twice. Did he inherit his service return from her? Did she bequeath her court savvy to her son?Some of his tennis skill set does derive from his mother, and some of it is his own. But what did Holt get from his father, Scott Holt?“His musical taste,” Brandon Holt said, and for the rising tennis star, that is something very precious.Ever since Holt, 24, rolled his ankle in his sophomore year at the University of Southern California and was forced to spend significant time away from tennis, he has become an avid guitar player, borrowing from his dad’s record collection to strum along with the Beatles, the Grateful Dead, Oasis, Pink Floyd and more.The guitar was something he picked up to get away from the mind-numbing magnetism of social media during his rehabilitation. He bought a guitar and learned chords and songs from the internet.“Every time I felt the urge to go on Instagram or something, I would pick up the guitar,” he said. “And I fell in love with it. Now it goes wherever I go.”Holt was too exhausted after his record-breaking upset win over the No. 10 seed, Taylor Fritz, on Monday to play later that night. In his hotel room on Tuesday morning, he grabbed his instrument and started jamming, just like any other day on tour, as long as the doctors allow it.Several months ago, Holt was recovering from a hand injury that temporarily jeopardized his career. He found he could strum the guitar, but picking the strings hurt his hand. He asked his surgeon if he could still pick through the pain.“He said, ‘That depends,’” Holt recalled. “‘Do you want to be a professional tennis player or a professional musician?’”The answer to that question is affirmatively the former. Holt is having the tournament of his life, piling career-best win on top of career-best win to reach the second round of the U.S. Open. If he can beat Pedro Cachin of Argentina, who is ranked No. 66 in the world, on Wednesday, Holt would become the first man with a wild-card entry into the qualifying rounds of the U.S. Open to reach the third round of the main draw.In other words, the U.S. Open gifted him the opportunity to compete in the pretournament qualifying rounds, which meant that he would then have to win three matches just to get into the main draw. He did that for the first time in his young career and then stunned Fritz in four sets.Holt, left, beat his friend, the No. 10 seed, Taylor Fritz, to advance to the second round.Frank Franklin Ii/Associated PressHe is the first wild-card qualifier to beat a top-10 seed, men or women, and the second man to win a match in the main draw. He did it by beating Fritz, an old friend — they have played against one another in Southern California since before they were 10 — who had designs on winning the U.S. Open.Fritz is also 24, but he has been playing in major tournaments for seven years. Quicker to develop professionally, Fritz was always helpful to Holt as they played against one another in their youths and trained together over the years. Fritz acted almost as a mentor while Holt bided his time. When they were young, Fritz invariably won their matches, but there was nothing weird about the tables turning as they did on Monday.“No, that’s not the right word,” Holt said. “I felt really happy, maybe just, I don’t know, stress relief. Sometimes, you want something so bad, and you want it to end so that it comes true, and when it happens, it just feels so good.”Holt’s gradual development has allowed him to surface into the thick of the U.S. Open eight years older than his mother was when she first won the U.S. Open as a 16-year-old phenom, seeded third, in 1979. Holt, who came into the qualifying rounds ranked No. 303, went to regular schools, avoided the grind of international travel as a teenager and spent four years in college with strong (free) coaching, top nutrition and training facilities (also free).“He really liked being a normal kid,” said David Nainkin, the lead men’s national coach for United States Tennis Association player development. “He’s got a strong family background, and he’s just taken his time and gotten a little better and a little better over time.”Austin remains a part of her son’s coaching staff and occasionally makes critical suggestions, Nainkin said, like a recent footwork adjustment that added 10 miles per hour to his serve. Nainkin added that Holt, always a smart player, has also taken a quantum leap in self-analysis of his game during his time at the U.S. Open.“He’s improved in just the nine days that he has been here,” Nainkin said.Tracy Austin won the U.S. Open twice and is now watching her son Brandon try to do the same.Matthew Stockman/Getty ImagesAlso, he is devouring newfound information about his opponents, statistics he had never had access to before. The U.S. Open is the first tournament Holt has played in which in-depth technical data is available on all players — from groundstroke speed to first-serve tendencies.Nainkin also believes that Holt’s pathway to the professional ranks has been enhanced by his maturity and independence. Before he was granted the wild card into qualifying, Holt traveled the world by himself — no parent, no coach, no manager — playing in Tunisia, Mexico, Ecuador, Britain and the Dominican Republic and ranked as low as No. 924.His only traveling partner was his guitar, a 2.5-pound semi-acoustic that he plugs into his computer and listens through headphones. Holt packs the guitar into his luggage and sets it in the corner of his hotel room and plays it every day, sometimes for two hours at a time, before he catches himself, lest he develop hand cramps while playing barre chords.Although he was drawn to his father’s musical tastes, neither of his parents plays an instrument, he said. His grandmother on his father’s side is an accomplished pianist, and sometimes they play together. Holt’s favorite song to play is one that could apply to all his friends and family members who could not make the journey to New York to witness his breakout tournament.“‘Wish You Were Here’ by Pink Floyd,” he said. “If there is only one song I could play for the rest of my life, it would be that one.”Luckily, there are no such restrictions. Holt is showing he can play a lot more than just that. More
- in Tennis
Rafael Nadal Prevails at Wimbledon In Grueling Win Over Taylor Fritz
Nadal struggled with an abdominal injury in his grueling quarterfinal victory over Taylor Fritz, a rising American star who pushed Nadal to five sets.WIMBLEDON, England — It was Wednesday evening on Centre Court, and Rafael Nadal was back in the semifinals of Wimbledon after proving once again that his threshold for pain and ability to improvise under duress are far beyond the norm.Taylor Fritz was in his courtside chair pondering what might have been and sensing that no defeat had ever hurt quite like this one because he felt like breaking into tears.“I’ve never felt like I could cry after a loss,” said Fritz, the 24-year-old rising American star who will rise no higher at the All England Club this year after Nadal’s victory, 3-6, 7-5, 3-6, 7-5, 7-6 (10-4).A thriller of a quarterfinal, it lasted 4 hours 21 minutes and might have gone quite a bit longer if not for the new rule at Wimbledon this year that requires a first-to-10-point tiebreaker to be played at 6-6 in the fifth set. The English soccer stalwart David Beckham, watching rapt from the royal box, might have preferred penalty kicks.Fritz, a thunderous server who also can pound his groundstrokes, upset Nadal to win the BNP Paribas Open in Indian Wells, Calif., in March in a match Fritz played with an injured ankle and Nadal played with a stress fracture in his rib cage.Fritz was on the verge of a more significant breakthrough on Wednesday and won, in the end, just as many points as Nadal did (168 apiece). But for all Fritz’s power and hustle, he could not win the points that mattered most; he could not capitalize on Nadal’s abdominal injury or on a two-set-to-one lead. He quickly lost command of the decisive tiebreaker, falling behind, 0-5, as Nadal summoned the shotmaking and guile that have made him a 22-time Grand Slam singles champion.“Rafa did what Rafa does: He figures stuff out,” said Paul Annacone, one of Fritz’s coaches. “He figures out what he’s got on the day, and he never makes it easy for the opponent. That’s why he’s thus far the most accomplished guy in the history of tennis.”Nadal, still chasing the Grand Slam at age 36, will face the Australian Nick Kyrgios, another big server with a much more volatile personality, on Friday for a place in the men’s singles final.In Friday’s other semifinal, the No. 1 seed, Novak Djokovic, the three-time defending Wimbledon champion, will face the No. 9 seed, Cameron Norrie, the last British player left in singles.The question is whether the second-seeded Nadal will be healthy enough to play. Nadal said he came close to retiring from the match after aggravating the lower abdominal injury midway through the opening set. But even without a full-strength serve and even with his father and sister urging him from the stands to retire, Nadal, as so often, found the solutions he needed to prevail even if he did not look a great deal more upbeat than Fritz when he arrived for a sotto voce news conference.Taylor Fritz threw everything he had at Nadal, but it wasn’t enough.Hannah Mckay/Reuters“It’s obvious that today is nothing new,” he said of the injury. “I had these feelings for a couple of days. Without a doubt, today was the worst day. There has been an important increase of pain and limitation. And that’s it. I managed to win that match. Let’s see what’s going on tomorrow.”He said he would undergo more tests on Thursday before deciding whether he would return to Centre Court to face Kyrgios, who upset him on that same patch of grass in their first meeting in 2014 in the round of 16. Nadal has won six of their eight other matches, including a testy second-round duel at Wimbledon in 2019 in which Kyrgios deliberately hit full-cut passing shots at Nadal’s body and felt no need to apologize.“Nick is a great player in all the surfaces but especially here on grass,” Nadal said. “He’s having a great grass-court season. It’s going to be a big challenge. I need to be at my 100 percent to keep having chances, and that’s what I’m going to try to do.”Nadal is clearly tired of talking about his body, weary of dealing with the injuries that have just kept coming during his intermittently sensational season.“If it’s not one thing, it’s another,” Nadal said.For the first time in his long career, Nadal won the first two Grand Slam tournaments of the season, the Australian and French Opens. No man has completed a Grand Slam, winning all four major tournaments in the same year, since Rod Laver in 1969, but Nadal kept his bid alive with Laver, 83, watching from the royal box.Nadal managed it by settling for a much slower serve that, according to Fritz, gave him more trouble than Nadal’s full-force delivery. Nadal walked gingerly off the court for a medical timeout with a 4-3 lead in the second set and said he received anti-inflammatory medication and treatment from a physiotherapist.“For all the first set and all the second and a big part of the third, the problem was not only the serve but that if I served I could feel the pain for the rest of the point and could not play it normally,” he explained. “It took a while to figure it out.” His average serve speeds on Wednesday were 107 miles per hour for first serves and 94 miles per hour for second serves compared with 115 and 100 in the previous round. But once he adjusted, he said he no longer had lingering discomfort during the exchanges and that he felt uninhibited on his groundstrokes.“For a lot of moments, I was thinking maybe I will not be able to finish the match,” he said, speaking to the Centre Court crowd. “But, I don’t know, the court, the energy, something else, so yes, thanks for that.”Nadal has not always been the crowd favorite at Wimbledon, where his longtime rival Roger Federer has long enjoyed that role. But Federer, 40, is not playing here this year, and Nadal, back for the first time since 2019, has been hearing plenty of positive feedback as he tries to win Wimbledon for the third time.He pushed on Wednesday, evened the match at two sets apiece and then went up a break in the fifth to take a 4-3 lead, only to lose his own serve in the next game. But as the match extended past four hours, he regained control and finished off the victory with a classic forehand winner from inside the baseline, complete with his bolo-whip finish behind his left ear.It has been a Wimbledon full of surprises. Before it began, the All England Club barred Russian and Belarusian players because of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Three leading players — Matteo Berrettini, Marin Cilic and Roberto Bautista Agut — withdrew after contracting the coronavirus.But Nadal and Djokovic are still in contention heading down the stretch, and so is Simona Halep, a former No. 1 who won Wimbledon in 2019 and is in resurgent form with the help of her new coach, Patrick Mouratoglou. Halep, a Romanian, will face Elena Rybakina of Kazakhstan in the semifinals on Thursday. Ons Jabeur, the No. 3 seed from Tunisia, will play Tatjana Maria, a German ranked No. 103 who has been the biggest surprise of the women’s tournament.Last year, Fritz came close to surprising Djokovic before losing in five sets in the third round of the Australian Open in a match in which, strange but true, Djokovic suffered an abdominal injury. The scenario against Nadal must have felt agonizingly familiar, and he said his biggest regret was not pushing Nadal harder the three times Nadal served to stay in the match.“In the end, he was just really, really, really good,” Fritz said. “Certain parts of the match I felt like maybe I kind of just needed to come up with more, do more. I left a lot kind of up to him, and he delivered.” More
- in Tennis
At Wimbledon, American Men Are Putting on a Fourth of July Bash
Nearly everywhere one looked on Wednesday and Thursday, an American man was slamming or slicing or grinding his way into the final 32, and it feels like the 1990s.Taylor Fritz, left, Francis Tiafoe and Tommy Paul are three of eight American men ranked in the top 50. Shaun Botterill/Getty Images; Clive Brunskill/Getty Images; Justin Setterfield/Getty ImagesWIMBLEDON, England — Just in time for the Fourth of July weekend, the American men are throwing a party on British soil.As night fell on Thursday at the All England Club, eight American men were set to qualify for the third round of the prestigious Wimbledon tournament, accounting for 25 percent of the final 32 spots. That is the most American men in the third round at the event since 1995, when nine qualified in the Sampras-Agassi-Courier-Chang heydays. It is also the most in any Grand Slam tournament since the U.S. Open in 1996.Nearly everywhere one looked on Wednesday and Thursday, an American man was slamming or slicing or grinding his way into the final 32, and one more will clinch his spot Friday. The sun has seemingly set on the era when every male American player had a big serve and a forehand and not much else.Some were familiar faces, like John Isner, bashing his way past the hometown favorite Andy Murray. But several were part of the next wave of rising Yanks in their mid-20s — the clique of Taylor Fritz, Tommy Paul and Francis Tiafoe that first bonded as teenagers at a national training center in Florida. And then there were a couple from the wave after that (Jenson Brooksby and Brandon Nakashima) who are still a couple years away from needing a daily shave. Two Americans, Maxime Cressy and Jack Sock, one new to the scene, the other a veteran, were dueling for the last available spot until rain interrupted their match on No. 3 Court on Thursday.Brandon Nakashima won his second-round match against Denis Shapovalov of Canada on Thursday.Toby Melville/Reuters“It’s been a long, long progression,” said Martin Blackman, the former pro who is the general manager of player development for the United States Tennis Association.Now before anyone stateside rushes out to the liquor store to get some Pimm’s on ice for a championship celebration, it is worth noting that no one expects any of these players to actually win the men’s singles title, at least not this year. American men’s tennis is deep but light on the top.The U.S. now has eight men in the top 50 and 13 in the top 100, more than any other country. Arguably the most promising of the lot, Sebastian Korda, son of the former world No. 2 Petr Korda, had to withdraw from Wimbledon 10 days ago with shin splints.“Didn’t give me anything to fish for,” Denis Shapovalov of Canada said of Nakashima, who beat him in four sets Thursday.Despite the stampede this week, there are no Americans in the top 10 and just two in the top 20 — Fritz and Reilly Opelka. Russia and Spain each have two players in the top 10. Spain, the best tennis country of the last decade, has four players in the top 20.But for a country whose male talent stock has long been seen as fairly lacking and is without a Grand Slam tournament champion since Andy Roddick won the U.S. Open in 2003, depth represents significant progress. It also serves as a kind of motivational tool. A friendly competition has emerged between the Americans in their mid-20s, who are led by Fritz, and the ones who have just reached the legal drinking age in the United States, or are not there yet, to be the first to play into the final rounds of a Grand Slam tournament.“They’re great for us,” Paul, 25, said of Brooksby, Korda, both 21, and Nakashima, 20. “They push us.”“For tennis to grow, we’re going to need some winners on the men’s side,” he added.The U.S.T.A. knows that as well. For years, it has been trying to hone a system to help develop players that will work in a vast country with more than 330 million people and plenty of competition from more popular sports that are cheaper for good young athletes to pursue.Taylor Fritz is the highest-ranked American men’s player at No. 14.Alastair Grant/Associated PressIn Europe, especially Eastern Europe, young teenagers with promise often leave home for academies. The academic and psychological support can be thin. A “Lord of the Flies,” sink-or-swim environment persists. Despite its success there in producing some formidable talent and champions, including Novak Djokovic, that model was never going to work with American parents.Instead, over the last decade the organization has tried to create a trout farm rather than find a unicorn. It developed a three-tiered program of local, regional and national camps that bring together top talent throughout the year but also allow kids to stay home for as long as possible and work with their own coaches. Airfare to the camps isn’t included, but just about everything else is, even some money for private coaches to attend sometimes so they don’t feel squeezed out of the process as a young player gets older and better.There is no one-size-fits-all approach. During the crucial years of development between the ages of 15 and 22, some players choose to work with U.S.T.A. coaches and trainers at their training centers in Orlando, Fla., or Carson, Calif., outside Los Angeles. Fritz was a part of the U.S.T.A. program for six years, Paul for five, Opelka for four and Tiafoe for three, Blackman said.Others, such as Korda, Nakashima and Brooksby, choose to remain largely outside the system, but they still can qualify for financial support and come to the occasional camp or show up at the training center for competition.Blackman also does not want the organization to preach a certain style of play. Cressy’s serve-and-volley game is just as valued as Brooksby’s finesse, Tiafoe’s serve-and-forehand power, and Nakashima’s all-court approach.At one such camp, a national gathering in Boca Raton, Fla., a decade ago, Fritz, Paul, and Tiafoe first bonded.“It was just really boring in those dorms, nothing to do, so we didn’t have much choice,” Fritz said recently.Fritz, with his big feet and mop of hair, and the least advanced game of the group, quickly became the group punching bag, friendly punching of course.“Big, goofy guy like that, you know he was going to end up being the target,” Tiafoe said.Jenson Brooksby beat Benjamin Bonzi of France on Thursday to advance to the third round.Ryan Pierse/Getty ImagesPaul said Fritz took it well. Fritz also saw that members of his new clique were better at tennis than he was, and he began working harder to catch up. Within a few years, he had pushed ahead. He is now the top-ranked American man at No. 14 and the only one of the younger set to have won a Masters 1000 tournament, the level just below the Grand Slams, emerging at Indian Wells, Calif., earlier this year.They remain close friends and genuinely invested in each other’s success, which helps during a long season filled with travel. Paul has been on the road for nearly 10 weeks.“I’m so homesick I want to throw up,” he said Thursday.Text threads and group dinners, sometimes fancy, sometimes burgers and pizza, and lengthy bull sessions help. Tiafoe made the final at a tournament in Portugal earlier this year. As he came off the court following each win, he would find congratulatory notes on his phone from the posse.A big and extremely difficult task for the next generation and the one right behind them still lies ahead — getting into the top 10 and becoming fixtures in the last matches of the biggest tournaments, the way American women, led by the Williams sisters, have performed for years.It’s getting closer.“I expect us to do well in all of these tournaments now,” Paul said. “It’s all about winning one more match and going one round deeper.”Paul has never made the second week of a Grand Slam. On Friday, on the first day of a third round with plenty of American company, he will get another chance. More
- in Tennis
Taylor Fritz Defeats Nadal at Indian Wells, Fulfilling a Prediction
The tournament has been a launching pad for young players recently, including Naomi Osaka and Bianca Andreescu, who went on to win the U.S. Open in the same year.INDIAN WELLS, Calif. — Back in the day, Taylor Fritz and his father Guy would drive north on the highway from San Diego, come over the Santa Rosa Mountains and navigate the switchback turns down to the Coachella Valley, where the world’s best tennis players gather every March in Indian Wells.Fritz, a talented junior, was just another boy patrolling the courts and hunting for fun and autographs, including Rafael Nadal’s, but Fritz’s father told him something extraordinary.“He told me that I was going to win this tournament one day,” Fritz said.On Sunday, Fritz, now 24, did just that: holding off a diminished but still dangerous Nadal, one of the greatest players in tennis’s long history.“This is seriously like a childhood dream come true,” said Fritz, fighting off tears after fighting off Nadal, 6-3, 7-6 (5). “Like a wild dream you never expect to actually happen.”Guy Fritz, who peaked at No. 301 in the ATP rankings in 1979, long believed in his son, who has reached No. 8 with this victory. But it has taken Taylor until now to develop the faith and the forehand to take out a champion like Nadal at such a tournament.It is a Masters 1000 event, a step below a Grand Slam tournament but the top-tier category on the regular tour, and Indian Wells has become a signature stop. It has vast grounds, excellent facilities and robust attendance even if this year’s total of 329,764 fans, with vaccination required for spectators, was no match for the prepandemic figure of 475,372 in 2019.The event also has strong backing from its billionaire owner Larry Ellison, who was sitting in the front row of his box on Sunday to watch Nadal, his friend and regular houseguest, try to remain unbeaten in 2022.Like Roger Federer, Nadal has endured and impressed long enough to transcend nationality. A Spaniard, Nadal has been on tour for nearly 20 years and won his record 21st Grand Slam singles title at this year’s Australian Open.Fritz, who grew up in nearby San Diego County in the elite enclave of Rancho Santa Fe, considers the BNP Paribas Open his “home tournament,” and though he did get considerable support, it sometimes felt like he was playing an away game against Nadal.But Fritz would not be denied as he finished off the victory on his second match point, ripping a forehand approach shot down the line that the lunging Nadal could not handle.“No way!” the wide-eyed Fritz shouted repeatedly.A title certainly had looked unlikely a few hours earlier when Fritz walked onto the same court and shouted in anguish as he attempted to push off on his right foot during a warm-up session that lasted only a few minutes. “Like, the worst pain imaginable,” he said. “I was really upset, basically almost crying, because I thought I was going to have to pull out.”After numbing the ankle with painkilling treatment, he went back out to hit on an outside court and felt better. But his coaches, Michael Russell and Paul Annacone, and fitness trainer, Wolfgang Oswald, all advised against him playing in the final, concerned Fritz might do longer-term damage to the ankle he had twisted in the semifinal on Saturday.Fritz ignored the advice. “I feel bad for those guys: I’m so stubborn,” he said. “I went out there, and I seriously played the match with zero pain.”Still, he has scheduled for Monday a magnetic resonance imaging scan on his ankle. It looks much more unlikely that he will play in this week’s Miami Open than it does for Iga Swiatek, who won the women’s singles title earlier on Sunday.Iga Swiatek celebrated after defeating Maria Sakkari to win the women’s singles title.Ray Acevedo/EPA, via ShutterstockSwiatek, the 20-year-old Polish star who is as thoughtful as she is powerful, defeated Maria Sakkari, 6-4, 6-1, in what was a match for the title but also for the No. 2 ranking.Swiatek, now ranked only behind Ashleigh Barty, was the more reliable force in the gusting wind with her heavy groundstrokes, particularly the forehand that she hits with extreme topspin, like her role model Nadal. Until this year, her biggest titles have come on clay: above all the 2020 French Open title that she won at age 19 without dropping a set.But Swiatek clearly has the skill and will to be No. 1 and an all-surface threat. After winning the WTA 1000 in Doha, Qatar on a hardcourt, she ran her winning streak to 11 matches by winning for the first time in Indian Wells.This tournament has been the site of big breakthroughs in recent years: Naomi Osaka won in 2018 and went on to claim her first major at that year’s U.S. Open; Bianca Andreescu did the same double in 2019.Fritz, who had never reached a Masters 1000 final until this tournament, required third-set tiebreakers to get past Jaume Munar and Alex de Minaur and three sets to defeat Miomir Kecmanovic before finding his form and range against Andrey Rublev on Saturday.“His victory of yesterday is much bigger than his victory of today, because he had a much tougher opponent,” Nadal said of the Rublev match.Nadal’s glum comment was a reference to the pain that he began feeling in his chest late in his windblown semifinal victory over Spanish compatriot Carlos Alcaraz on Saturday.Nadal had to stretch and strain to adjust his shots to those unpredictable conditions, and though he said he had not yet received a clear diagnosis, it was possible that, in contorting himself in the wind against Alcaraz, he had strained a pectoral muscle or intercostal muscle near his ribs.“When I try to breathe, it’s painful and very uncomfortable,” said Nadal, now 20-1 in 2022. “But that’s it no? It’s not the moment to talk about that, honestly. Even if it’s obvious that I was not able to do the normal things today. That’s it. It’s a final. I tried. I lost against a great player.”Fritz’s parents were touring professionals who helped to shape his game when he was young. His mother Kathy May was ranked as high as No. 10 in singles in 1977 on the WTA Tour and reached three Grand Slam singles quarterfinals during her career.After her son’s victory, May spoke courtside with Martina Navratilova, whom May once defeated on tour, and later posed for photographs on court with her son.Fritz was married at 18 and is the father of a 5-year-old son Jordan but is now divorced and traveling with his girlfriend Morgan Riddle.“She’s so committed to making sure I’m doing all the right things, like I’m going to bed on time,” he said in an interview. “It’s just someone who’s holding me accountable, who also wants the same things I want, and it’s amazing just to have someone who cares and who can help me do the right things.”What Fritz wanted this season was a place in the top 10, and now he has one. He was ranked No. 39 in early October but said he tweaked his forehand technique after watching footage of a junior match he played against Rublev. “We were just absolutely crushing the ball,” Fritz said. “I watched exactly how I was hitting my forehand and just tried to copy it as much as possible.”He reached the semifinals in Indian Wells last year when the tournament was delayed and played in October, and he has been defeating top 20 players with regularity since then. He is the first American to win the singles in Indian Wells since 2001 when Andre Agassi won the men’s title and Serena Williams won the women’s title.Fritz was 3 at the time. But Indian Wells soon became a regular part of his life and when he returned this year, he looked up at the big photograph of reigning men’s champion Cameron Norrie on the wall of the players’ lounge and imagined his own photo taking its place.“All week, I was like, it would be so cool for that to be my picture,” he said. Mission accomplished, and a long-ago prediction has also come true.“He was just really, really proud of me,” Fritz said of his father, tearing up as he smiled. “It’s really tough to get a compliment out of him.” More
- in Tennis
At Indian Wells, a Shot of Optimism for American Men’s Tennis
Long without a major tournament champion, the United States has four players in the round of 16 at the BNP Paribas Open and seven in the top 50.INDIAN WELLS, Calif. — False dawns in American men’s tennis? There have been quite a few in the last 20 years here in the California desert and in more well-watered parts of the pro circuit.So, it is unquestionably wise not to get carried away in a sport the Europeans still rule, as they have since a smooth-moving Swiss man named Roger Federer calmed his nerves and slipped into a higher gear in 2004 to leave Andy Roddick in his rearview mirror at the top of the rankings.Since then, tall and good-natured American men in the shadows, like John Isner and Sam Querrey, have had to field countless variations of one question: “What has happened to American men’s tennis?”But Isner, 36, long the top-ranked American man, had a look of quiet confidence on Tuesday night as he revisited that topic.“I think for the first time in a while you can actually say American tennis on the men’s side is very promising,” he said. “There’s no doubt about that.”How not to detect a cool breeze of optimism after watching Tommy Paul, 24, knock out the third-seeded Alexander Zverev in a third-set tiebreaker here at the BNP Paribas Open on Sunday night and then seeing the 21-year-old Californian Jenson Brooksby outhit and outwit the fifth-seeded Stefanos Tsitsipas in another three-set upset the following night?Indian Wells, a second home to many an affluent elder, has been prime real estate for coming of age this year, and that does not even include the 21-year-old American Sebastian Korda’s missed opportunity against Rafael Nadal in the second round. Korda, the younger brother of the L.P.G.A. stars Nelly and Jessica, was up two service breaks and 5-2 in the final set before allowing Nadal, one of the game’s greats, to wriggle free.Patrick McEnroe, the ESPN analyst and retired player, said Sebastian Korda could be a top-five player.Jayne Kamin-Oncea/USA Today Sports, via ReutersEven without Korda, four American men have reached the round of 16 here: Isner, Brooksby, Taylor Fritz and Reilly Opelka, the 6-foot-11 power server with a bushy beard and swing speed worthy of a lumberjack. That is the most since 2004, and it also reflects their rise in the ATP rankings. The seven American men in the top 50 is also the most since 2004, and six of those seven men — all but Isner — are under 25.It is no takeover: The top 10 remains nearly all European, with Felix Auger-Aliassime of Canada as the lone interloper. But it is progress, and there appears to be considerable upside.“I think that’s true,” said Patrick McEnroe, an ESPN analyst, former pro player and U.S. Davis Cup captain. “I think particularly from Opelka, Brooksby, Korda and maybe throw Fritz in there, although I don’t know if he’s got the athleticism to get to the top-top.”McEnroe, like a lot of people in tennis, looks at the 18-year-old Spaniard Carlos Alcaraz, with his blazing speed and all-action, all-court game, and clearly sees a future No. 1 player.“I wouldn’t say that about the Americans,” McEnroe said. “But I would say, to me, I could see Brooksby, Korda and Opelka definitely hitting the top five at some point and definitely getting to the final four or final of a major. That’s what it’s going to take to get the average fan a little bit more interested in it, no doubt. So, I’m very optimistic, and if you have one or two of those guys do that, I think the other guys will feel even more emboldened.”For now, the Americans have a daunting Wednesday ahead with Opelka facing Nadal, Brooksby facing the defending tournament champion Cameron Norrie, Fritz facing the No. 29 seed Alex de Minaur, and Isner facing the No. 33 seed Grigor Dimitrov.This has been a long time building, and McEnroe had a view near the ground floor as the head of the United States Tennis Association’s player development program. He was pushed out in late 2014 in part because of poor men’s tour results. When his tenure ended, Isner was the only American man ranked in the top 50, but while in his role, McEnroe heard and saw plenty of Opelka, Paul, Fritz and Frances Tiafoe, a charismatic African American player from the Washington, D.C., area.All four are projected to be ranked in the top 40 after this tournament, with Opelka currently the top-ranked American at No. 17.“It’s cool that we can all do this together,” said Fritz, who is ranked 20th, after his narrow third-round victory over the Spanish qualifier Jaume Munar on Tuesday.They are fast friends. Boyhood group photos abound, and Opelka and Paul were long housemates in Florida. Like many groups of talented players from the same country, they are feeding off each other and pushing each other.“It’s really not surprising,” Fritz said. “I’ve been around these guys my whole life. I know how good they are.”Fritz, Opelka and Paul were all Grand Slam tournament junior singles champions, which is not necessarily a harbinger of professional success, although it certainly was for Federer, who won the Wimbledon boys’ title in 1998.But the Americans have all made it on tour. Trailing them in age, but not potential, are Korda and Brooksby, both 21 years old but with very different games.Korda is the 6-foot-5 son of Peter Korda, the 1998 Australian Open winner, and the retired WTA player Regina Rajchrtova. He has a flowing, balanced game with easy power, and his emotions, by design, are difficult to read on his placid game face.Brooksby is a fiery 6-foot-4 scrapper from Sacramento with an underpowered serve who has not been on tennis experts’ radar nearly as long as Korda has. His style is confrontational, and his strokes are artisanal. But his contact points are consistently clean, and his two-handed backhand is a versatile marvel — and he can punch and counterpunch with conviction with his forehand, too.“He’s a little bit unconventional in his ball-striking, but the space between a foot or two behind the ball and a foot or two in front of the ball, he repeats that over and over again,” said Brad Stine, Paul’s coach. “Would I teach someone to hit a ball exactly the way he hits the ball? No. But it’s absolutely, 100 percent repeatable for him.”The 6-foot-11 Reilly Opelka has used a powerful serve to climb to No. 17 in the rankings.Jayne Kamin-Oncea/USA Today Sports, via ReutersStine compares Brooksby to the former top-five player Brad Gilbert, an author of the book “Winning Ugly.” Brooksby has repeatedly left higher-ranked players mystified and disgruntled during his brief and successful professional career. Add Tsitsipas, the hirsute Greek with the polished game and elegant one-handed backhand, to that list, as he damned Brooksby with faint praise (in defeat).“He’s not a very explosive player, but he’s able to get balls back,” Tsitsipas sniffed. “He’s not the most athletic player, as well. He’s just able to read the game well, play with his pace, play with the opponents’ pace.”“There’s nothing that he has that kills, I would say,” Tsitsipas concluded.But Brooksby seemed far from miffed. “I think a lot of players and coaches maybe don’t see how I could be as good of a level as I am,” he said. “That’s what we shoot for in our games and strategy, not to be too easily figured out. That’s how the top players over history have been.”For now, Brooksby is ranked 43rd. The top spot, occupied by Daniil Medvedev of Russia and soon to be reoccupied by Serbia’s Novak Djokovic, is a long way off. It remains highly advisable to keep the Champagne in the fridge with young talents like Alcaraz and Italy’s Jannik Sinner already well-established threats, but the Americans and the collective mood are justifiably upbeat.Even Isner did not seem to mind answering yet another question about the future on Tuesday: What would it take for us to say American men’s tennis is really back? A Slam title?“No, because the bar has been set pretty low since 2003, probably,” Isner said. “I think getting two guys in the top 10 would be a good starting point. Then you go from there.”That, in Isner’s mind, “in the near future is very conceivable.” More
