Getting To Know Netflix Break Point Star Taylor Fritz

Intense and focused from the second he steps on court, Taylor Fritz’s hard-hitting game has taken him to four ATP Tour titles and the Top 10 of the Pepperstone ATP Rankings.

Away from the action, however, the 25-year-old American is a calm, collected and fun-loving presence on the Tour. Now featured in Netflix’s behind-the-scenes documentary series Break Point, ATPTour.com breaks down five things you may not know about the wide-smiling American.

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1) He Is An Avid Gamer & E-Sports Investor.
Fritz is not just a serious contender on the tennis court. One of the American’s biggest off-court passions is video games, with Fortnite, Call of Duty Black Ops 2 and World of Warcraft listed among his all-time favourites. He has invested in a company that owns a Call of Duty league team, the London Ravens, but he still gets his biggest kick from competing online himself.

“I think I really got into it when I found out that you could play online against other people,” Fritz told ATPTour.com in 2021. “Just the idea of competition like that… When I was a kid that was the most entertaining thing to me, going up against somebody else. So, when I found out I could go on Xbox with my friends and play Call of Duty at night against other people and talk [smack] to them while doing it, it was really fun for me.”

2. He Is a Top 10 player… And So Was His Mum!
Fritz broke into the Top 10 of the Pepperstone ATP Rankings for the first time in October 2022. Reaching the Top 10 in the world represents a notable achievement for any tennis player, but Fritz was not the first in his family to do it. His mother Kathy May Fritz reached a career-high of No. 10 on the Hologic WTA Tour in 1977, and Fritz has often acknowledged the key role she played in his own development.

“I spent a lot of time on the court with my mum and she taught me a lot of things,” said Fritz, who as a kid once teamed with Kathy May for a prestigious mother-son event at his local club. “It has definitely helped me along the way. She definitely helped me make decisions and she came to tournaments, and she coached me and gave me strategies.”

Taylor Fritz celebrates his 2022 triumph at Indian Wells with his mother Kathy May Fritz. Photo Credit: Clive Brunskill/Getty Images.

3. He Reached The Third Round Of Wimbledon Just Three Weeks After Knee Surgery
Missing tournaments to recover from injury can be one of the most frustrating aspects of life on Tour, but Fritz pulled off a remarkable comeback after damaging the meniscus in his right knee at Roland Garros in 2021. Despite immediately having to undergo surgery, the American stepped out at Wimbledon just three weeks later to defeat his countryman Brandon Nakashima in the first round at the grass-court Grand Slam.

“It’s just amazing to see [reward for] all the hard work I put in,” said Fritz, who went on to reach the third round in London that year. “I was really determined. Every day when I was doing my three, four hours of [physical therapy], I was thinking ‘Wimbledon, Wimbledon, Wimbledon.’ I was never really discouraged.”

4. He Lived With Fellow ATP Tour Stars Reilly Opelka & Tommy Paul As A Teenager
Fritz enjoys a strong off-court relationship with many of his on-court rivals on the ATP Tour, but his friendships with fellow Americans Reilly Opelka and Tommy Paul go way back. The trio lived and trained together as teenagers at the US Tennis Association’s base in Boca Raton, Florida, and Fritz holds fond memories of their time “kind of hanging out, killing time together” as juniors.

“The first time I actually met them was when I went to USTA when I was like 15 years old… We have been through so much," Fritz told ATPTour.com last year. "It's crazy to think you grew up with a lot of people playing tennis, and not many of them end up making it professionally and we all were able to come up and be on Tour together. It is great."

5. He Regularly Tucks Into A Chipotle Bowl After A Heavy Training Session
As a finely tuned athlete constantly striving to find his best level, Fritz sticks diligently to a carefully planned healthy diet. He does consider it “healthier to just eat some cheat meals here and there”, however, and one regular part of the American’s post-training session meal may come as a surprise — a Chipotle bowl.

"You can be unhealthy with your bowl if you want to get like a ton of cheese on it, but you can also just go in and get chicken, rice, vegetables, and guacamole and that's a great meal after you've just worked out,” Fritz told Insider last year. “I think a lot of people don't understand how good it is as a post-workout meal. It's got everything."

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