Fritz’s US Open run shows there is a window for more men to go deep in Grand Slams
The American says the fact that he didn’t play absolute best all through the US Open shows how much things have changed
Antoine Couvercelle / Panoramic
Taylor Fritz may have missed out on winning his first Grand Slam title – beaten in straight sets by Jannik Sinner on Sunday – but the American’s run to the US Open final at least proved one thing; there’s a window there for players to come through and have a shot at winning a major.
That’s very different from the peak era of the big three, when even getting to the final was proving difficult for anyone not named Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal and Novak Djokovic were not only mopping up the biggest titles, but often playing each other in the final. To get to a final in those days, you probably had to beat at least one of them, if not two.
With Federer retired, Nadal at the end of his career and Djokovic 37, things have changed.
Fritz, however, is the first man to reach his first slam final in two years, since Nick Kyrgios made the Wimbledon final. And though Sinner and Carlos Alcaraz have split the slams this year, that at least provides others, like semi-finalists Frances Tiafoe and Jack Draper, and many others, that reaching a final is not the impossibility it sometimes seems. Tiafoe was playing his second slam semi-final and Draper his first.
“Obviously Carlos and Novak and some people lost early on in this tournament, so it really opened up the draw a lot. You can only really beat who is in front of you,” Fritz said.
Fritz: “I don’t feel I was playing amazing tennis”
Furthermore, Fritz feels it can be done without needing to play lights-out tennis in every match.
“But I think it’s really positive for me, because I don’t feel like at any specific point in these two weeks, I don’t feel like I was playing, like, amazing tennis, I guess. I feel like I was playing solid, nothing, I guess, special. I feel like I haven’t been hitting my backhand as good as I like to, haven’t been serving as good as I like to. Luckily I can still get away with it and hold.”
“Maybe it is a bit more open. I don’t think you have to, I don’t know, play unbelievable to go deep in tournaments and contend. Like I said, it’s different. Novak and Carlos lost, you know. I would have had to play a really, really great match if I happen to play Novak somewhere else in the draw. I think that you can find yourself a little deeper in the draws, like, quarter-finals and stuff if you just play solid tennis. I still think to beat the top guys you need to bring your best game.”
Tiafoe: “No one is unbeatable”
Speaking before the semi-finals, Tiafoe emphasised the same point.
The game is open,” he said. “It’s not like it once was where you make quarter-finals, you play Rafa and you’re looking at flights. That’s just the reality. Now it’s just totally different.
“And no one’s unbeatable. Especially later in the season where guys are maybe a little bit cooked. Maybe just not as fresh and they’re vulnerable.”
Frotz said his run to the final would give him a lot of confidence in the future.
“I think the biggest thing is like I said before: I played solid this week, but I played very within myself,” he said. “I don’t think I at any point was, like, ‘wow, I’m playing incredible’, or ‘I’m playing out of my mind’.
“I think that’s just extremely reassuring to me that I was able to get to this point, just playing solid tennis. I know that there’s still a lot of room for improvement. And something I’ve said throughout my entire career, whether it’s when I won my first ATP point or I won my first Challenger or I made my first round of 16 or whatever it is, I’ve always said once I do something once, I just feel a lot more confident in being able to do it again.
“That’s something that’s always stuck with me. Sometimes it’s taken me some time to get to a certain achievement, but I’ve always felt like once I’ve done something, I gain a lot of confidence that I can do it again. So it is a great feeling to have gotten to this point, knowing that, you know, I’m playing well, but I’m playing very within myself, and I feel like it’s repeatable.
Americans surging
Though America has still not had a men’s champion at any slam since Andy Roddick won the US Open in 2003, Fritz was the first since Roddick to make any slam final since 2009. And Tiafoe, speaking after being beaten by Fritz in the semis, said there was a lot of optimism now, especially among the American men, with five ranked inside the top 20.
“I think it (has) opened the floodgates for sure,” he said. “I think guys are going to start believing they can go deep in slams. Tommy (Paul) has already made semis of slams, Ben (Shelton) as well…Fritz, now he’s made the finals. None of us younger guys have done that.
…I think a lot of guys are going to be able to think they can do it, especially in this one where later in the season, with American crowds.
“I think it’s big. I think it’s big, shows that it’s definitely possible. As I said, again, the game’s open. Even with Alcaraz and Sinner and these other guys, it’s not what it used to be.”
