Fritz “pretty upset” with performance in US Open final
The American explained that his “plan A” didn’t work against Sinner
Chryslene Caillaud / Panoramic
Taylor Fritz has revealed that he is disappointed in the way he played against Jannik Sinner in the final of the US Open on Sunday in New York.
The American, who was playing his first Grand Slam final, lost in straight sets, 6-3, 6-4, 7-5, to the world No 1. While Sinner played brilliantly for the majority of the two-hour, 16-minute clash, Fritz would have liked to bring a better level himself on Arthur Ashe Stadium.
“It was a really tough match for me,” Fritz began in his post-match press conference. “I’m pretty just disappointed in a lot of things on the court, how I played, how I hit certain shots. It sucks.
“I’m not saying that it necessarily would have made a difference. I don’t know if it would have, but I just would have liked to have played better and given myself a better chance.
“It’s really disappointing right now. I feel like the American fans, [have] been wanting a men’s champion for a long time, and I just, I don’t know, I’m pretty upset with how I played. I feel like I almost let a lot of people down.
“I just really expected to come out and play better from the start.”
Fritz details how “plan A” failed against Sinner
“I had a plan of what I wanted to do going out, but a lot of it I didn’t [do well],” continued Fritz, breaking down where things went wrong against Sinner.
“I didn’t hit the ball as well as I expected to. That’s something that’s big if I wanted to just go back and forth and ball-strike with him, because he’s such an amazing ball striker.”
Fritz explained that while in other match-ups, he would usually fall back to playing safer tennis, Sinner did not afford him that luxury in the US Open final.
“[When] my plan A is not working, the plan B that I fall back on would normally be just like bringing everything in, being a little bit safer, grinding it out,” the No 12 seed said.
“That works, along with my serve, against a lot of other players. But against him, I tried to kind of bring it down, not be as aggressive, and he’s just gonna bully me a little bit too much.
“It was tough that I guess my plan A wasn’t really working for me until, like, the third set I started to kind of get it going.”
Fritz came within one game of winning the third set, with the American breaking Sinner but then failing to serve out the set and force a fourth.
