“It’s such a lifelong dream come true” – Fritz into first Grand Slam final
Fritz came from two sets to one down to beat Frances Tiafoe in five sets on Friday
Taylor Fritz at the 2024 US Open
Image Credit: Zuma / Panoramic
Reaching your first Grand Slam final is a milestone for any tennis player. Doing it in your home Grand Slam after beating your countryman, who has also been a close friend from younger days, makes the milestone all the more special. That’s what Taylor Fritz did on Friday at night as he beat Frances Tiafoe in five sets on Arthur Ashe Stadium.
In the process, Fritz, the top-ranked American men’s player in the world, fulfilled a lifelong dream and reached the US Open final where he will take on world No 1 Jannik Sinner in Sunday’s final. It all turned out to be quite emotional for the usually reserved 26-year-old, who choked up during his on-court interview.
“I think I hadn’t really fully registered. It hit me when (Chris Eu) Banks said the thing about how I’m in the finals and the crowd was cheering. It’s just kind of like how I am, I’m more of an emotional person when I’m happy. When I’m really happy I cry at happy endings of movies and like not at sad stuff. That’s kind of just how I am,” Fritz told the media in his press conference late.
“It’s just joy, like, the crowd cheering and kind of that realization, like wow, I’m in the finals of the US Open. It’s such a lifelong, I guess, dream come true, something I’ve worked my whole life for to be in this situation. I think just kind of like realizing that got me a little bit choked up.”
“It was really just about trying to withstand it for as long as I could, keep holding serve And apply the scoreboard pressure…
Taylor Fritz
Fritz went down two sets to one in Friday’s semi-final but he decided to keep fighting until he found an opening.
“It was a crazy match. I think a lot of it was just about handling the moment and the pressure. He was playing at a very high level, I felt like, in the third and fourth sets. It was really about just staying in it and kind of just withstanding how much pressure he was putting on me from the baseline with how he was just either pulling me off the court on every shot or taking the ball super early, changing directions, which is, it’s so hard to do what he was doing just consistently, Fritz added.
“It was really just about trying to withstand it for as long as I could, keep holding serve and apply the scoreboard pressure and just hope that at a certain point that the errors are going to come a little more, I’m going to get a little more looks to attack and be aggressive. It got to that point in the end, and I finally started to get some mistakes from him, and some balls that I could, you know, look to be a little more aggressive on.
“I think this is just the start for all of us” – Fritz on the success of American men
Fritz also becomes the first American to reach a US Open final since 2006 and believes his success along with that of Tiafoe, who was playing in his second semi-final at Flushing Meadows in the last three years,
“I think it gives hope and shows that we’re knocking on the door of winning a slam, and we have this generation, this group of guys where there’s, like, four or five of us that are, like, actually at this level. It shows that we’re all moving in the right direction. I think that whenever one of us does something, the others follow, the others get belief from it. I think this is just the start for all of us,” Fritz added.
