Taylor Fritz is the BOSS Open champion in Stuttgart, having started his grass-court season in emphatic fashion.
After a miserable past few months on the dirt, it’s refreshing to see the 27-year-old recapture his form at the first time of asking.
However, he went above and beyond throughout this week, performing at an extremely high level to steal the world number four spot back from Jack Draper.
It has taken a long and arduous journey for Fritz to become the kind of player who’s expected to take these kinds of titles, and he’s now spoken about that journey.
Taylor Fritz on dealing with American pressure as a youngster
Chatting on the Tennis Insider podcast, they quizzed Fritz on how he dealt with the weight of expectation as he began to break through.
The American was raw and unfiltered as he stated: ‘Obviously when you get those kind of people saying that it feels good, but I think for me it was just like not being… Because I wasn’t someone who, I guess, had those expectations when I was younger before that. I think a lot of people are like, from the ages of like 14, 15, 16 people are saying, like, they’re the next person, they’re the next person. I didn’t really step into that until I was like 17 or 18.
‘And then, so I wasn’t used to it. And I think that the biggest issue was just caring too much in the beginning about, like, what people are saying, because you’re not used to anyone ever… You’re not used to it before. You’re not used to anyone talking about you saying anything about you before.’
Recalling his reaction to this attention, he then admitted: ‘And I think, that’s like probably the thing I handled the worst. I was probably like embarrassed about looking back now because now I’m at like, I don’t give a f—- what people say. Like, it’s crazy. Like, why would I ever care what anyone says?
‘Yeah. So I think that was the biggest thing, was just like worrying too much about like that stuff when I was younger, but other than that, like, I think I struggled with some things in my game, but I kind of just focused on, getting better improving.
‘And I think, you know, it took me maybe, like, three or so years where I just didn’t really know what was going on and then after that, I settled in and then started kind of, you know, picking up where I feel like I should have maybe started.’
Taylor Fritz beats Alexander Zverev to win the Stuttgart BOSS Open title
Fritz has come a long way from that promising youngster who bought into his own hype.
Nowadays, he is a far more measured, calculated individual, and that comes across in his tennis.
He exhibits a no-frills game, doing the basics to an extremely high level and pairing that with an extraordinary serve.
It was just that serve which carried him into the BOSS Open final, which he won earlier today making it five straight victories over Alexander Zverev.
He claimed the title without dropping a single set and did not face a break point in the semis or the final, with Fritz admitting he is feeling motivated to play on this surface again for the first time in a while.
With this triumph under his belt, he can head to Queen’s, and then Wimbledon, brimming with newfound confidence after a torturous few months on the clay.
