‘Frustrated’ Taylor Fritz regrets ‘missed opportunities’ during Novak Djokovic defeat
Taylor Fritz has labelled his quarter-final loss to Novak Djokovic at the US Open as ‘tough’ after converting just two of his 13 break points.
The American, who reached the final at the event in 2024, put on a valiant performance, but fell to the 24-time Grand Slam champion 6-3, 7-5, 3-6, 6-4.
Fritz looked competitive throughout all four sets, finally breaking the Serb’s serve whilst he attempted to serve out the second set.
However, a double fault would prove fatal for the world No 4, putting an end to the match and sealing an astonishing 11th-consecutive victory for Djokovic over Fritz.
“To be honest, the fact I was 0-10 almost sounds better for me than it really was because that is not counting how many times I had 15-30 or 0-30, 30-30,” admitted the American, during the post-match press conference.
“I had so many more chances that you are not going to see on the stat line because I was in points at 0-30, 15-30, 30-30 and I was just playing these points really poorly.
“When it comes down to the break points themselves, I would say that out of the 10, I think I converted on the 11th.
“I would say the first 10 I would say that five or six of them he played pretty well and it’s tough for me to do too much.
“And then four of them I just played a bad point or was too conservative or just pulled the trigger on the wrong time. It was just bad decision making, because I was not playing as well as I would have wanted to.
“So it’s a little bit tough in those pressure situations to know what I want to do, if it’s not really working for me.”
Djokovic, despite being 38, has now reached the semi-finals at all four Grand Slams in 2024, and will next play world No 2 Carlos Alcaraz.
During his first four matches, the Serb took multiple medical timeouts for a range of issues – including treatment on his feet, back, and shoulder – but did not continue the trend on Tuesday.
Fritz also analysed that Djokovic was not playing at his best and was ‘making more mistakes’ than he usually would, something which may concern fans of the 24-time Grand Slam champion ahead of his next match.
“His level was much higher in the fourth set, and mine was too,” added the world No 4.
“I think the fourth set was the only set where it was pretty good tennis from the baseline consistently from both of us.
“I think both of us cut down a lot on the mistakes in the fourth. I think he gave me a lot more mistakes than he usually does, and gave me a lot more looks.
“I was not doing much, and I was getting all those break point chances the first two sets, so realistically I just can’t come out of those first two sets down two sets to love.”
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Although Fritz reached a maiden Grand Slam final at the 2024 US Open (losing to Jannik Sinner), he now possesses a 0-11 record against top 5 players at Grand Slam level against players not named Alexander Zverev.
With Djokovic’s victory, the American will fall back down to the world No 5 spot, despite having been within touching distance of the third spot earlier in the season.
This small, but crucial, difference between himself and the Alcaraz, Sinner, and Djokovic is something which Fritz later elaborated on during his post-match press conference.
“I just need to play better,” concluded Fritz.
“That’s the thing that is frustrating. I don’t need to play that much better to make it happen, because I had all the chances that I had playing how I was playing and I just needed to serve a bit better.
“I was serving pretty poorly in the first two sets.
“But at the end of the day, that is one of the things that makes the great players great, they win the big points and that is something that I touched on before the match.
“I am going to need to go out and take those points from him. He is not going to hand them over to me, and that’s exactly what happened.
“A lot of my weapons and aggressive shots were just not there or letting me down, so I felt like it was tough for me to go out and take those points.”
