Fritz: 'I feel I like belong' in the Top 5

Taylor Fritz made significant progress in 2024. The American reached his maiden major final at the US Open and this week advanced to the title match at the Nitto ATP Finals, ending the season at a career-high No. 4 in the PIF ATP Rankings.

The American lost in straight sets to Jannik Sinner in the final in Turin on Sunday night but is delighted with his year overall.

“It's been a really good week for me. Obviously, it's a good way to end the year. It gives me a lot of confidence finishing the season like this,” Fritz said. “Something I told my team in 2023 when I hit World No. 5 for a week right before I was defending the Indian Wells title, was 'That's crazy, I'm five the world, look at all these guys ranked behind me that are probably better than me’.

“Back then I was five, but I didn't feel like I was five. Now I'm ranked where I'm at. I feel like I belong. It's a different feeling. It's been a great year. That gives me a lot of confidence to have that belief. That's a huge part of having the big results. The goals I set for myself at the start of the year was to finish Top 5.”

Fritz earned wins against Alexander Zverev, Daniil Medvedev and Alex de Minaur to become the first American to reach the Nitto ATP Finals title match since James Blake in 2006. However, the 27-year-old had no answers against Sinner, who also beat the fifth seed in the round-robin stage by the same scoreline as the final.

Fritz was full of praise for World No. 1 Sinner.

“He's playing great. I felt from the baseline, it was pretty similar to the previous match we played. What I was really impressed with today was how he served,” said Fritz on Sinner, who made 71 per cent of his first serves according to Infosys ATP Stats. “He served absolutely lights out. So many lines. He placed the serve great. He took a lot of risk on the second serve as well. I think that was probably one of his main game plans, to not let me attack his second serve.

"He did a great job of not only mixing up the second but being very aggressive with it, not throwing in double-faults for serving bigger and being a little riskier with it. I was really impressed with how he served.”

Fritz will finish his season at the Davis Cup Finals next week but leaves Turin holding a 52-23 record. The American feels he knows where he can improve heading into 2025.

“I definitely need to get more explosive and quicker in the first step,” said Fritz. “If I can just get a little quicker off the split step, it will help my return of serve a lot. If I can just put myself in slightly better chances to break serve, I think that's going to be a huge improvement. That's something I've done already, but I think there's still a lot of room for improvement there.

“Something that got exposed today is when the balls got pretty worn out, I was struggling to generate any power with my backhand. It allowed him to take control of a lot of points. When the balls were newer, that wasn't really an issue. I was able to stay in the points.”

Fritz, who won tour-level titles in Delray Beach and Eastbourne in 2024, will hope to improve his record against the very best in 2025, with the American holding a 0-11 record against World No. 1's. The 27-year-old leads a group of five Americans (Tommy Paul, Frances Tiafoe, Ben Shelton, Sebastian Korda) inside the Top 25 into 2025.

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