Taylor Fritz

Taylor Harry Fritz (born 28 October 1997) is an American professional tennis player. He has a career-high singles ranking of world No. 4 by the ATP, achieved on 18 November 2024 and a best doubles ranking of No. 104, achieved on 26 July 2021. Fritz has won ten ATP Tour singles titles, including a Masters 1000 title at the 2022 Indian Wells Open, and was a finalist at the 2024 US Open and at the 2024 ATP Finals.

Fritz won a junior major singles title at the 2015 US Open, and was the runner-up in junior singles at the 2015 French Open. He reached his first ATP Tour final in only his third career event, the 2016 Memphis Open.

Early life and background

Fritz was born the youngest of three boys to Kathy May, a former top-10 WTA player, and Guy Henry Fritz, who also played professional tennis and was named US Olympic Development Coach of the Year 2016. They divorced when he was 18. Through his mother, Fritz is the great-great-grandson of David May, founder of The May Department Stores Company, which merged with Macy's.

Fritz has two older maternal half-brothers, Chris and Kyle. His uncle, Harry Fritz, also played professional tennis and competed in, and won, the longest Davis Cup match of all time (by number of games). His aunt, Laura Fritz, was a competitive swimmer reaching a top-5 in the world ranking in the 100 freestyle as well as a member of the world record relay team in the 400 X4 freestyle.

Fritz grew up with his brothers in Rancho Santa Fe in the San Diego metropolitan area. He attended Torrey Pines High School, where he won the CIF singles title in the San Diego section as a freshman. A few months into his sophomore year, he switched to Laurel Springs School, an online high school to play full-time ITF junior events.

Junior career

Fritz did not play any ITF events until he was 15, when he competed in a low-level Grade-4 tournament in March 2013 in Clairemont near where he grew up. He would not play another event until the 2013 Junior US Open, at which point he began to compete regularly on the ITF Circuit shortly before turning 16. Within the next year, he made it to the semifinals at the 2014 Junior Wimbledon tournament. He then won his first Grade A tournament at the 2014 Osaka Mayor's Cup.

In 2015, Fritz reached at least the quarterfinal of all four junior Grand Slam tournaments, including the final at the French Open where he lost to Tommy Paul, and the final at the US Open where he defeated Paul. This major success helped him finish the year as the number-one-ranked boy's junior tennis player, for which he was named the 2015 ITF Junior World Champion. He was the first American to hold this title since Donald Young in 2005 and Andy Roddick in 2000.

Professional career

2015: ATP debut

Fritz played his first ATP Tour tournament at Nottingham, where he received a wild card and won his first ATP match against Pablo Carreño Busta.

In September 2015, Fritz turned pro after winning the Junior US Open. He quickly rose from the 600s into the top 250 of the ATP rankings by becoming the 9th player at age 17 to win multiple Challenger Tour titles – doing so in back-to-back weeks. The others to accomplish that feat include Top 20 players Bernard Tomic, Tomáš Berdych, Richard Gasquet, and Juan Martín del Potro as well as Number 1 overall players Rafael Nadal and Novak Djokovic.

2016: Top 100 and ATP Tour final

After he lost in the final of his last tournament of 2015, Fritz reached a final again in his first tournament of 2016, this time winning against top-100 player Dudi Sela at Happy Valley to catapult to a ranking in the 150s. In the following week, he made it through Australian Open Qualifying to reach his first main draw of a Grand Slam tournament at the Australian Open, where he would lose in the 1st round to fellow American Jack Sock in five sets.

Fritz was awarded a wildcard into his first ATP 250 tournament of 2016 at Memphis and knocked off the second-seeded Steve Johnson, who at No. 29 was the highest ranked player Fritz had ever defeated. With his victory over Ričardas Berankis in the semifinal, he became the youngest American to reach an ATP final since Michael Chang in 1988, and also the second-fastest American ever to reach an ATP final, doing so in just his third career ATP tournament. John Isner is the only American that was able to reach an ATP final faster. Fritz would lose in the final to three-time defending champion and top-10 player Kei Nishikori. In February, Fritz cracked the top 100 for the first time by reaching the quarterfinals in Acapulco at his first career ATP 500 event.

Fritz's grass-court season was highlighted by a close three-set loss to Roger Federer at Stuttgart. He would end up peaking in the rankings at No. 53 towards the end of the summer. At the US Open, Fritz drew Jack Sock in the first round of a major for the second time this year, again losing in five sets.

To cap off the year, Fritz won the ATP Star of Tomorrow for being the youngest player in the top 100, having just turned 19.

2017: First major win

Fritz was able to achieve his first victory over a top-10 ATP player at Indian Wells, defeating sixth seed Marin Čilić in the second round. Fritz struggled through the first half of the year with injury problems and ended up skipping the clay court season to focus on recovering. He returned to form in the summer with quarterfinals at Los Cabos and Winston-Salem. In his seventh grand slam appearance, Fritz won his first match at a major tournament by knocking out Marcos Baghdatis at the US Open before losing in the second round to Dominic Thiem.

2018: Top 50 debut

After finishing 2017 just outside the top 100, Fritz had a good start to the 2018 season, reaching two Challenger finals in January. He returned to the Top 100 of the ATP rankings by reaching the final in New Caledonia, though he lost there to Noah Rubin. Following a loss in qualifying at the Australian Open, he then won his first Challenger title in two years at the inaugural event in Newport Beach, not too far from his current residence in Palos Verdes.

He continued his strong start by making it to the fourth round at Indian Wells, his first round of 16-appearance at a Masters event.

Fritz kicked off the clay-court season with a semifinals appearance at the US Men's Clay Court Championships in Houston, the best result on clay of his career thus far. In the tournament, he upset Ryan Harrison and Jack Sock before losing to Steve Johnson. This helped him get back to No. 66 in the world.

At the US Open, Fritz reached his first Grand Slam third round, defeating Mischa Zverev and Jason Kubler, before losing to 9th-seeded Dominic Thiem in four sets.

Earlier in the season, Fritz began working with Paul Annacone, who helped him reach a career-high ranking of world No. 47 on November 5, 2018.

2019: Top 25, first ATP title

Fritz made the third round at the Australian Open, losing to Roger Federer in 3 sets. Fritz then went on to win the Challenger at Newport Beach, California; he defeated Brayden Schnur of Canada in the final, in straight sets. In June, Fritz won his first ATP Tour title at the Eastbourne International by defeating Sam Querrey in straight sets. In the first round of Wimbledon, Fritz defeated Tomáš Berdych in straight sets, before losing to Jan-Lennard Struff in four sets. At the US Open, Fritz was seeded 26th, his first-ever Grand Slam seeding. However, in the first round, he lost to Feliciano López.

Fritz represented Team World in the third annual Laver Cup, held in Geneva. In his first singles match, he lost to Stefanos Tsitsipas. Fritz bounced back on the final day of play in defeating Dominic Thiem. At the Swiss Indoors, Fritz defeated 2nd-seeded Alexander Zverev in the first round in straight sets. After achieving a career-high ranking of world No. 25 on August 5, 2019, Fritz ended the year ranked No. 32 in the world.

2020: First ATP 500 final

Fritz began his season at the inaugural 2020 ATP Cup, representing Team USA. He went 1–2 in the singles competition, as Team USA was sent out of the tournament in the round-robin stage.

At the Australian Open, Fritz reached the third round, posting a five-set victory over Kevin Anderson. He was then defeated by eventual finalist Dominic Thiem.

Fritz reached his first ATP 500 final in Acapulco, where he lost to Rafael Nadal. However, his runner-up showing propelled him to a new career-high ranking of world No. 24 on March 2, 2020.

At the US Open, Fritz was seeded 19th. He defeated Dominik Koepfer in four sets and then beat Gilles Simon in the second round before losing to Denis Shapovalov in the third round in five sets.

At the French Open, Fritz was seeded 27th. He defeated Tomáš Macháč in five sets and Radu Albot in straight sets before losing to Lorenzo Sonego in the third round in straight sets. The match against Sonego had the longest tie-break in French Open history, with Fritz losing the tie-break 17–19.