Taylor Fritz speaks out on his brutal record against Novak Djokovic ahead of US Open clash
Taylor Fritz has spoken about the challenge of chasing his first win against Novak Djokovic ahead of his clash with the tennis legend in the quarter-finals of the 2025 US Open.
The American star has lost all 10 of his previous matches against Djokovic, which were spread between 2019 and 2024. This will be the pair’s fourth meeting at a Grand Slam, with Djokovic having beaten Fritz at the Australian Open in 2024 and 2021 and the US Open in 2023.
In the duo’s most recent encounter, 24-time major winner Djokovic defeated Fritz 6-4, 7-6(6) in the semi-finals of the Shanghai Masters in October last year after saving a set point in a tight second set.
Fritz has seen off Emilio Nava, Lloyd Harris, Jerome Kym and Tomas Machac to reach the quarter-finals at Flushing Meadows, while Djokovic has beaten Learner Tien, Zachary Svajda, Cameron Norrie and Jan-Lennard Struff.
Following his 6-4, 6-3, 6-3 fourth round win against Machac, Fritz put his head-to-head record against Djokovic into perspective when asked what makes the Serbian such a tough matchup for him.
“I think the thing is, it’s spanned over so many years,” the world No 4 said.
“I think the first, probably like seven or eight times I played him, I wasn’t just a good enough player to have that much of a chance, unless I have like the best day ever and he has a bad day.
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“Only the last couple times we’ve played I think I’ve been this, just better player that can, I’d say compete and have chances and last time we played, Shanghai, I had looks, I had set points in the second set, I really probably should have won the second, taken it to a third set.
“But yeah, think what makes it tough is he serves well, he serves aggressive on second serves. It’s tough to take advantage of his serve for how well he also returns and just is from the baseline, he backs it up incredibly well with the serve, so it’s tough to sometimes get on him the way that he’s I guess getting on you with the return.”
The 27-year-old also addressed whether he could learn anything from other players who have made comebacks in lopsided head-to-head series, like Coco Gauff has against Iga Swiatek.
“I think the way to turn around is just to become a better player,” Fritz assessed.
“I think that Coco would probably say the same thing. I think she would probably tell me that she was just better at tennis when she started reversing the head-to-head.
“And for me, in my head I’m not thinking about all the losses I had to Novak when I was like… five years ago. I was nowhere near the level of player that I am now.
“What I’m thinking about, fresh in my mind is when we played at World Tour Finals (2022), that one, and the one in Shanghai last year. In those ones, I served for the set in the World Tour Finals, I had set point serving in Shanghai.
“I know that in the most recent matches we’ve had, there’s been looks and I just haven’t been able to make it happen in the important moments of those matches.
“And that’s what makes the best guys the best guys, is they’re not going to give it to you in those moments. You have to go and take it.”
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