Fritz eyes return to form at US Open

Taylor Fritz is hoping that a return to the Grand Slam stage will be just the catalyst he needs to shrug of back-to-back early defeats at the ATP Masters 1000 events in Canada and Cincinnati.

Making his ninth main draw appearance at the US Open, Fritz is excited to be back in New York and the Grand Slam stage, on which he has enjoyed consistent success this year, reaching quarter-finals at the Australian Open and Wimbledon and the fourth round of Roland Garros.

The California native and recent winner of the double bronze medal at the Paris Olympics (with Tommy Paul) is currently the highest-ranked American in the PIF ATP Rankings, sitting at No. 12. Despite winning just one match during Montreal and Cincinnati with defeats to compatriots Brandon Nakashima and Sebastian Korda, Fritz is “hoping to have a big week” at the US Open.

“Obviously really excited to be here. It's, like, the biggest week for the U.S. players,” said last year’s US Open quarter-finalist during his pre-tournament press conference Friday.

“Yeah, it was my first slam, quarter-final here. It's just a good feeling. I think last year I was coming in here, just felt like I just needed a result at a slam, because the slam results were just really poor last year. So I felt like I needed a good result.

“This year, the slam results have been pretty solid. I feel like I've been performing well at the slams, playing three-out-of-five sets.

“I'm feeling good, I'm feeling, I guess, pretty confident about just playing in the big tournaments right now.”

Fritz’s run to the quarter-final last year was halted by the eventual champion Novak Djokovic who claimed a record 24th Grand Slam singles title on the Arthur Ashe Stadium.

“It's crazy to win that many, and be that consistently just good,” Fritz said. “Like your just baseline average level just has to be so much better than everyone else's. It speaks to how much better someone is than everyone else (smiling). Because there are so many people just trying to get that one, trying to get one or two, a couple.

“It's amazing, and obviously the discipline throughout the year is to never be satisfied and always want more is also just extremely impressive in itself,” he said about the four-time US Open champion.

The former Top 5 player is seeded to face No. 8 seed Norwegian Casper Ruud in the quarter-finals. He is also drawn to play 2021 Wimbledon finalist Matteo Berrettini in the second round.

Fritz opens his US Open campaign against Argentine Camilo Ugo Carabelli on Monday.