Taylor Fritz, the junior world No.1, suffered huge disappointment when losing his boys’ singles semi-final to fellow American Reilly Opelka, but the son of two tennis players is ready to move on.
Fritz may be out of the boys’ singles, but there is a lot to get excited about the way the 17-year-old Californian played this week. The talented teenager from Sante Fe started playing tennis almost as soon as he could walk, and the power in his game and the repertoire of shots are down to years of dedication.
However, beginning so young did have its downsides. “I started playing when I was about two years old because there was always tennis around me,'' Fritz said. "We have a court at home and my dad was a coach. It was pretty expected that I got into it. But I stopped playing for a while when I was four because I started to hate it.
“I refused to play, even though my dad would try to convince me to go onto the court. I just hated it. I started playing again and started playing tournaments. That’s when I decided I wanted to play a lot of tennis and practise a lot.”
Although Fritz was good at a number of sports at school, tennis was always going to be first choice. “When it came down to tennis and the five other sports I was playing I decided tennis was definitely the one I could have the best shot at being a professional player, because of my parents’ background and knowledge,'' Fritz adds. “At 15 I dropped every sport and started pursuing mainly tennis, and working hard at that.”
The game is certainly in the blood. His mother, Kathy May, reached a career-high ranking of No.10 in the world and his father, Guy, also played professionally and has since coached top players, including the Wimbledon quarter-finalist CoCo Vandeweghe.
I just really want to win a junior Grand Slam. The US Open is my last chance
Their background in the sport will undoubtedly help him, but the other benefit is that they know what the life of a player involves. As a result, they have been reluctant to let him turn professional too soon, and he has continued in education longer than many other junior players. “I stayed in regular high school a lot longer than most people, until half way through my sophomore year,” he says. “Now I do an online school, but I’ve only done that for a year-and-a-half.”
Unsurprisingly, Fritz, who was runner-up at the French Open, gave himself a week off from his studies to compete at Wimbledon, where he was aiming for his maiden Grand Slam junior title.
On his favourite surface, Fritz looked set to achieve that goal, making it through the first four rounds with relative ease. However, on Friday he was despatched by the big-serving American Opelka, who knew his game well after practising with him regularly for the past month.
“I thought this one was the one,” Fritz said. “I just really want to win a junior Grand Slam. The US Open is now going to be my last chance for that.”
While most players decline media requests after a defeat at a Grand Slam, for Fritz it was “no problem”, despite the huge disappointment of not reaching the final. Defeat is not something he has to deal with too much, but how does he cope when he does?
“I just look at the positives, and move on from there really,” he said. “It’s really tough to get me mad. Everyone will tell you I rarely get angry or anything, I’m a pretty mellow person. I love competing and being on the court. I like playing and entertaining.”
There is no doubt Fritz has entertained the Wimbledon crowd, and when he has fully recovered from this setback there are plenty of positives to take from his run at SW19.
