2024 was a very satisfying year for Taylor Fritz, who reached his first final in a Grand Slam tournament. The American player hoped to celebrate in front of his fans at the US Open, who have been waiting for an American winner in the men's tournament since Andy Roddick's triumph.
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Fritz played a great tournament at Flushing Meadows and showed that he improved his game, even defeating Alexander Zverev during his run in New York. However, world number 1 Jannik Sinner did not give him a single set in the final and took his second Major title in 2024 after the Australian Open.
Taylor was very disappointed with the defeat suffered in the final, especially because he hoped to put his opponent in more difficulty. The current world No. 5 has realized that he still has to close a gap to Sinner and Carlitos Alcaraz, who are dominating the men's tour right now.
Thanks to his excellent season, Fritz qualified for the Nitto ATP Finals in Turin. The surface is very suitable for his game and it is no coincidence that Taylor reached the semifinals as second in the 'Ilie Nastase group'. The American ace defeated Daniil Medvedev in straight sets on his debut in Turin, before being defeated by Sinner in a fairly close clash. On the last day of the group stage, Fritz beat de Minaur in three sets and secured his qualification for the semifinals.
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Jim Courier praisesFritz
Taylor wants his run at the ATP Finals to be long and has gained further confidence in recent days. If he enters the final in Turin, Fritz would become world number 4 for the first time in his career.
On the latest edition of the Inside In podcast, ATP legend Jim Courier commented on Fritzs rise in 2024: This year has been a major breakthrough for him literally. This has been the year hes become a real factor in the majors that hes played in, to his credit. Hes really consistently putting himself into position.
He obviously got outplayed in that US Open final. If you watched it, you saw that Sinner was able to do things from defence to offence that Taylor was unable to match.
That will continue to be a difficult match-up, not just for Taylor but for most players on tour, but similar to Zverev if Taylor can keep putting himself into position
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He continued: The guys improved his movement, hes gotten stronger you dont have to question his fitness. Now its about maintaining what youre doing well and making minor improvements on things. He can make that drop shot a little more fluid. Thats one thing that can be super effective for him thats not natural, but practice, practice, practice, and suddenly that becomes a language you can speak.
A steady rise
The world number 5 will have to work very hard during the off-season to take the last step that separates him from the two best players in the world. Fritz's next goal is to win a Grand Slam title, a huge milestone for a player who has weapons very suitable for modern tennis.
Taylor didn't play his best tennis against de Minaur yesterday, but he showed the right reaction after losing the first set. The American champion knows he can play very well on this surface, in which he also put a legend like Novak Djokovic in trouble two years ago.
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Its tough, because even though I won the match, I feel like there wasnt necessarily any moment when I feel like I had a repeatable way to win from the baseline, to be honest, said Fritz after his win over de Minaur. He was all over me. What I did a great job of was towards the end of the second set, I really started to find my serve. I was serving much better and that allowed me to just stay with it and create more pressure on his service games.
When I wasnt making the first serves, he was just killing me from the baseline, so it just gave me a little bit of comfort to just stay in the match and not be under so much pressure all the time. I was able to just come up with some good shots at some good times, play off some of his mistakes, but it was still incredibly tough. I think a lot of us are pretty beat up, but if Im in the semis of the Nitto ATP Finals, Ive got energy to give he added. The best moment of Fritz's career may have just begun.
