Interview: Taylor Fritz on playing UTS where he grew up, attracting new fans and his pick for most entertaining player in the LA field
The Hotshot is hoping for home crowd support as the UTS series kicks off in Los Angeles on Friday
Taylor Fritz serves ahead of the UTS series kick off in Los Angeles
Image Credit: Thierry Breton for Tennis Majors
Taylor ‘The Hotshot’ Fritz is the top-ranked American male in the world currently and will have fans cheer him on in the coming weeks leading up to the US Open Grand Slam. The 25-year-old will get a good taste of that when he plays the UTS series in Los Angeles, the city where he grew up and calls home.
A day prior to the start of the UTS league, which features eight players, Fritz sat down with Tennis Majors to talk about playing at home, trying to get new fans into the world of tennis and his pick for the most entertaining player in the field.
Taylor. Great to see you. Welcome back to Southern California. You must be extremely happy to be back Stateside!!
Taylor Fritz: Of course. Obviously, I grew up here and spent so much time in LA. I’m basically home. I’m really excited to play in front of like a real home crowd and I have a lot of friends and family out here and (they can come) see what I can do. I think a lot of people know about it. And I hope I have a lot of close friends and family coming to support me.
If what we've seen thus far is any indication, you should have lots of support. You've seen there's always a good vibe with you when it comes to playing close to home.
Taylor Fritz: Yeah, for sure. I think especially here just at this specific location as well as where I’ve spent a lot of time just training like daily when I’m in LA so it’s just super familiar to me.
You've had some experience with UTS before. It's not a normal competition by any means. How do you think the American fans are going to embrace it?
Taylor Fritz: I think it’s going to be great and I think it’s a great format. Just for us being in LA as well because LA hasn’t had tennis in a while and I guess it’s not the most popular tennis city or town. I think it’s going to be great for people to come here and I’ve been pushing it.. a lot of like if you’re not a tennis fan, it’s fine because we’re not playing with normal tennis rules.. everything is going to be explained to you.. you can come here as a first-time fan, know nothing about tennis and enjoy yourself and understand what’s going on and it’s gonna be exciting.
UTS is all about entertainment and bringing that entertaining side. The players here are amazingly talented. Who do you think in your opinion is the most entertaining player?
Taylor Fritz: They did a really good job with this lineup. Getting a lot of guys that are really fun to watch. You can get a crowd involved I think. I think I gotta say Gael Monfils. He is one of the best entertainers in the history of tennis and he’s always gonna put on a show for sure.
