Taylor Fritz
Taylor Harry Fritz is an American professional tennis player. He is the 2nd-fastest American ever to reach an ATP final, accomplishing the feat in just his third career event.
His mother Kathy May Fritz was a Top 10 player, and his father Guy Henry Fritz also played professional tennis and was named US Olympic development coach of the year 2016.He reached the finals in boys' singles at the 2015 French Open, and lost to fellow American Tommy Paul in three sets. He avenged the loss by defeating Paul in boys' singles final at the 2015 US Open.
Early life and background
Fritz was born the youngest of 3 boys to Guy Fritz and former world top-10 tennis player Kathy May. He is the great-great-grandson of David May, founder of The May Department Stores Company that merged with Macy's, and the great-grandson of Morton D. May.Fritz has two older maternal half-brothers, Chris and Kyle.
Fritz grew up with his brothers in Rancho Sante Fe in the San Diego metropolitan area. He attended Torrey Pines High School, where he won the CIF singles title in the San Diego section as a freshman. A few months into his sophomore year, he switched to an online high school to allow him to play ITF junior events full-time.
Junior career
Fritz did not play any ITF events until he was 15, when he competed in a low-level Grade 4 tournament in March 2013 in Claremont near where he grew up. He would not play another event until the 2013 Junior US Open, at which point he began to compete regularly on the ITF tour shortly before turning 16. Within the next year, he made it to the semifinals at the 2014 Junior Wimbledon tournament. He then won his first Grade A tournament at the 2014 Osaka Mayor's Cup.In 2015, Fritz reached at least the quarterfinal of all four junior grand slam tournaments, including the final at the French Open where he lost to Tommy Paul, and the final at the US Open where he defeated Paul. This grand slam success helped him finish the year as the number one ranked boy's junior tennis player, for which he was named the 2015 ITF Junior World Champion. He was the first American to hold this title since Donald Young in 2005 and Andy Roddick in 2000.
Professional
2015: Challenger Tour success
Fritz played his first ATP Tour tournament at Nottingham, where he received a wild card and won his first ATP match against Pablo Carreño Busta.In September 2015, Fritz turned pro after winning the Junior US Open. He quickly rose from the 600s into the Top 250 of the ATP Rankings by becoming the 9th player at age 17 to win multiple Challenger Tour titles – doing so in back-to-back weeks. The others to accomplish that feat include Top 20 players Bernard Tomic, Tomas Berdych, Richard Gasquet, and Juan Martín del Potro as well as Number 1 overall players Rafael Nadal and Novak Djokovic.
2016: Surge into Top 100, First ATP Final
After losing in the final of his last tournament of 2015, Fritz reached a final again in his first tournament of 2016, this time winning against Top 100 player Dudi Sela at Happy Valley to catapult to a ranking in the 150s. In the following week, he made it through Australian Open Qualifying to reach his first main draw of a Grand Slam tournament at the Australian Open, where he would lose in the 1st round to fellow American Jack Sock in five sets.Fritz was awarded a wild card into his first ATP 250 tournament of 2016 at Memphis and knocked off the 2nd-seeded Steve Johnson, who at No. 29 was the highest ranked player Fritz had ever defeated. With his victory over Ricardas Berankis in the semi-final, he became the youngest American to reach an ATP final since Michael Chang in 1988, and also the 2nd-fastest American ever to reach an ATP final, doing so in just his 3rd career ATP tournament. John Isner is the only American that was able to reach an ATP final faster. Fritz would lose in the final to three-time defending champion and Top 10 player Kei Nishikori. In February, Fritz cracked the Top 100 for the first time by reaching the quarter-finals in Acapulco at his first career ATP 500 event.
Fritz's grass court season was highlighted by a close three set loss to Roger Federer at Stuttgart. He would end up peaking in the rankings at No. 53 towards the end of the summer. At the US Open, Fritz drew Jack Sock in the first round of a grand slam for the second time this year, again losing in five sets.
To cap off the year, Fritz won the ATP Star of Tomorrow for being the youngest player in the Top 100, having just turned 19 years old.
2017: First Grand Slam match win
Fritz was able to achieve his first victory over a top ten ATP player at Indian Wells defeating sixth seed Marin Cilic in the second round. Fritz struggled through the first half of the year with injury problems, and ended up skipping the clay court season to focus on recovering. He returned to form in the summer with quarterfinals at Los Cabos and Winston-Salem. In his seventh grand slam appearance, Fritz won his first match at a major tournament by knocking out Marcos Baghdatis at the US Open.2018: Continued Tour success
After finishing 2017 just outside the Top 100, Fritz had a good start to the 2018 season, reaching two Challenger finals in January. He returned to the Top 100 of the ATP rankings by reaching the final in New Caledonia, though he lost there to Noah Rubin. Following a loss in qualifying at the Australian Open, he then won his first Challenger title in two years at the inaugural event in Newport Beach, not too far from his current residence in Palos Verdes. He continued his strong start by making it to the 4th round at Indian Wells, his first Round of 16 appearance at a Masters event.Fritz kicked off the clay court season with a semifinals appearance at the US Men's Clay Court Championships in Houston, the best result on clay of his career thus far. In the tournament, he upset Ryan Harrison and Jack Sock before losing to Steve Johnson. This helped him get back to No. 66 in the world.
At the US Open, Fritz reached his first Grand Slam third round, defeating Mischa Zverev and Jason Kubler, before losing to 9th-seeded Dominic Thiem in four sets.
Earlier in the season, Fritz began working with Paul Annacone, who helped him reach a career-high ranking of #47.
2019: Top 30 breakthrough
Fritz made the third round at the Australian Open, losing to Roger Federer in 3 sets. Fritz then went on to win the Challenger at Newport Beach California; he defeated Brayden Schnur of Canada in the final in straight sets. In June, Fritz won his first ATP Tour title at the Eastbourne International tournament by defeating Sam Querrey in straight sets.In the first round of Wimbledon, Fritz defeated Tomas Berdych in straight sets, before losing to Jan-Lennard Struff in four sets.
At the US Open, Fritz was seeded 26th, his first-ever Grand Slam seeding. However, he lost to Feliciano Lopez in the first round.
Fritz represented Team World in the third annual Laver Cup, held in Geneva. In his first singles match, he lost to Stefanos Tsitsipas, 2-6, 6-1, 7-10. Fritz bounced back on the final day of play, defeating Dominic Thiem, 7-5, 6-7, 10-5.
At the Swiss Indoors, Fritz defeated 2nd-seeded Alexander Zverev in the first round, 7-6, 6-4.
After achieving a career-high ranking of #25 in August, Fritz ended the year ranked #32 in the world.
2020: First ATP 500 Final
Fritz began his season at the inaugural ATP Cup, representing Team USA. He went 1-2 in singles competition, as Team USA was sent out of the tournament in the round-robin stage.At the Australian Open, Fritz reached the third round, posting a five-set victory over Kevin Anderson. He was then defeated by eventual finalist Dominic Thiem.
Fritz reached his first ATP 500 final in Acapulco, where he lost to Rafael Nadal. However, his runner-up showing propelled him to a new career-high ranking of #24.
Playing style
Fritz possesses a dominant serve that can reach 149 mph, and solid groundstrokes off both wings. One of Fritz's defining strengths is his ability to hit sharp angle cross-court shots on both the backhand and forehand sides. He also has a good topspin lob.Personal life
In an interview before Fritz played his first match against Roger Federer, he recalled watching the live stream of the 2009 US Open final between Federer and Juan Martín del Potro when he was in fifth grade.He married tennis player Raquel Pedraza in California in July 2016, after dating for over two years. Raquel gave birth to the couple's child, a boy named Jordan, in January 2017.
ATP career finals
Singles: 5 (1 title, 4 runner-ups)
| Result | W–L | Date | Tournament | Tier | Surface | Opponent | Score |
| Loss | 0–1 | 2016 Memphis Open – Singles| | Memphis Open, USA | 250 Series | Hard |  Kei Nishikori | 4–6, 4–6 |
| Winner | 1–1 | 2019 Eastbourne International – Men's Singles| | Eastbourne International, UK | 250 Series | Grass |  Sam Querrey | 6–3, 6–4 |
| Loss | 1–2 | 2019 BB&T Atlanta Open – Singles| | Atlanta Open, USA | 250 Series | Hard |  Alex de Minaur | 3–6, 6–7 |
| Loss | 1–3 | 2019 Los Cabos Open – Singles| | Los Cabos Open, Mexico | 250 Series | Hard |  Diego Schwartzman | 6–7, 3–6 |
| Loss | 1–4 | 2020 Abierto Mexicano Telcel – Men's Singles| | Mexican Open, Mexico | 500 Series | Hard |  Rafael Nadal | 3–6, 2–6 |
Doubles: 2 (2 runner-ups)
| Result | W–L | Date | Tournament | Tier | Surface | Partner | Opponents | Score |
| Loss | 0–1 | 2018 Los Cabos Open – Doubles| | Los Cabos Open, Mexico | 250 Series | Hard | Thanasi Kokkinakis |  Marcelo Arévalo Miguel Ángel Reyes-Varela | 4–6, 4–6 |
| Loss | 0–2 | 2019 Swiss Indoors – Doubles| | Swiss Indoors, Switzerland | 500 Series | Hard | Reilly Opelka |  Jean-Julien Rojer Horia Tecău | 5–7, 3–6 |
Challenger and Futures finals
Singles: 8 (5–3)
| Result | W–L | Date | Tournament | Tier | Surface | Opponent | Score |
| Win | 1–0 | 2015 Sacramento Challenger – Singles| | Sacramento, USA | Challenger | Hard | Jared Donaldson | 6–4, 3–6, 6–4 |
| Win | 2–0 | 2015 Fairfield Challenger – Singles| | Fairfield, USA | Challenger | Hard |  Dustin Brown | 6–3, 6–4 |
| Loss | 2–1 | 2015 JSM Challenger of Champaign–Urbana – Singles| | Champaign, USA | Challenger | Hard |  Henri Laaksonen | 6–4, 2–6, 2–6 |
| Win | 3–1 | 2016 City of Onkaparinga ATP Challenger – Singles| | Happy Valley, Australia | Challenger | Hard |  Dudi Sela | 7–6, 6–2 |
| Loss | 3–2 | 2017 RBC Tennis Championships of Dallas – Singles| | Dallas, USA | Challenger | Hard | Ryan Harrison | 3–6, 3–6 |
| Loss | 3–3 | 2018 BNP Paribas de Nouvelle-Calédonie – Singles| | Nouméa, New Caledonia | Challenger | Hard | Noah Rubin | 5–7, 4–6 |
| Win | 4–3 | 2018 Oracle Challenger Series – Newport Beach – Men's Singles| | Newport Beach, USA | Challenger | Hard | Bradley Klahn | 3–6, 7–5, 6–0 |
| Win | 5–3 | 2019 Oracle Challenger Series – Newport Beach – Men's Singles| | Newport Beach, USA | Challenger | Hard |  Brayden Schnur | 7–6, 6–4 |
Doubles: 1 (0–1)
| Result | W–L | Date | Tournament | Tier | Surface | Partner | Opponents | Score |
| Loss | 0–1 | USA F4, Palm Coast | Futures | Clay | Martin Redlicki |  Markus Eriksson Milos Sekulic | 1–6, 1–6 |
Junior Grand Slam finals
Singles: 2 (1 title, 1 runner-up)
Singles performance timeline
Current through the 2019 Stockholm Open.Wins over top 10 players
- Fritz has a record against players who were, at the time the match was played, ranked in the top 10.
| Season | 2015 | 2016 | 2017 | 2018 | 2019 | Total |
| Wins | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 5 | 6 |