Taylor Fritz in 2023

Apologies for the delayed post – school has gotten hectic. 

Let’s discuss Taylor Fritz’s chances in 2023. Fritz has always been a player to keep an eye on; he’s somewhat analogous to Jessica Pegula in that they are both fairly consistent, highly-ranked American players. The key difference between the two is that Fritz has a great weapon in his serve – it’s big, and he doesn’t miss it a lot (see his 100% first serve rate against Cressy in this year’s Eastbourne final.) Fritz also proves to be somewhat anomalous as an American with a very powerful and consistent backhand (as opposed to players like Johnson, Roddick, Isner, and Sock). While his play still leaves much to be desired (second serve), I personally think the American has a solid chance to win both Wimbledon and the US Open next year – here’s why.

Wimbledon

We’ve already seen Fritz excel on grass in the past, capturing a title at Eastbourne and narrowly losing to Nadal in the Wimbledon quarterfinals. His game lends itself well to the surface, plain and simple; his serve is powerful, and his strokes are solid and relatively compact, and while his movement is not excellent, it is passable and will be fine on a surface that does not reward pushing. As a player in a generation lacking in strong grass-courters, Fritz seems capable of filling the role.

US Open

Interestingly, it seems Fritz has never excelled at the US Open in the past. Americans train on hard courts, so the fast concrete should, on paper, benefit his game, but more importantly, the home crowd should also provide a huge advantage towards him/disadvantage towards his opponent. So why does he always seem to choke at the major that he should make deep runs in? The answer, in my opinion, is that the US Open directly attacks Fritz’s biggest weakness as a player: his inability to handle pressure. 

Fritz has had plenty of opportunities to win big this year, but has only seemingly capitalized on one – Indian Wells. From an outsider’s perspective, it seems like he gets in his own head when playing Djokovic (as seen in the ATP Finals this year, when he had a chance to serve for a set) and occasionally when playing Nadal (Wimbledon). Fritz is still relatively young at 25, so he has plenty of time to pull together some kind of deep run at a major – but his seeming inability to handle the pressure of doing so makes that idea seem more like a possibility than an inevitability.