The American player who has impressed Taylor Fritz and his tribute to Novak Djokovic
Taylor Fritz has been impressed with how well Jessica Pegula has adjusted to hard court tennis after the Olympics.
Fritz says that he has struggled with the change and that has made him appreciate what Pegula has done.
Pegula won the Canadian Open and reached the Cincinnati Open final and heads into the US Open as one of the strongest contenders for the crown.
“I mean, I think it’s amazing how well she’s doing kind of just coming from the Olympics. I think it helps a bit she had a couple of, probably a couple extra days to be in Toronto to get acclimated than we did, because we were there on the last day, had to stay an extra day and leave,” Fritz said in New York.
“No, it’s amazing how well she’s doing, because she’s literally the only person that played the Olympics that, like, is having, I guess, good results. Like, anyone else that’s had good results that did the Olympics, they were out on one of the first days and they actually had some time to get ready for Montreal.
“Yeah, it’s been very tough as far as preparation goes just coming from the Olympics and then playing Montreal, Cincinnati. Especially with how fast both tournaments felt, just coming from the clay was not ideal.”
Fritz says that he has a fresh appreciation for just how great Novak Djokovic is after he claimed Olympic gold in Paris.
Djokovic has an incredible baseline level according to the American and he said that winning 24 Grand Slams makes the Serbian one of the greatest athletes ever.
“Yeah, it’s crazy to win that many, you know, and be that consistently just good,” Fritz said
“Like your just baseline average level just has to be so much better than everyone else’s. #
“You know, it speaks to how much better someone is than everyone else.
“Because there are so many people just trying to get that one, trying to get one or two, a couple.
“Yeah, it’s amazing, and obviously the discipline throughout the year is to never be satisfied and always want more is also just extremely impressive in itself.”
Fritz is hoping to build on a last eight run in New York last season having reached two more Grand Slam quarter-finals since.
“It was my first slam, I guess, quarterfinal here. I mean, it’s just a good feeling,” Fritz said.
“I think last year I was coming in here, just felt like I just needed a result at a slam, because the slam results were just really poor last year. So I felt like I needed a good result. This year, the slam results have been pretty solid. I feel like I’ve been performing well at the slams, playing three-out-of-five sets.
“I’m feeling good, I’m feeling, I guess, pretty confident about just, I guess, I don’t know, playing in the big tournaments right now.”
Fritz said that he wouldn’t be too worried by the prospect of enduring a late finish at the US Open.
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“I don’t think I’ve ever played one here that’s gone that late,” Fritz commented when asked about the prospect of playing into the small hours of the morning.
“I’d say the positive thing about it happening here is you’re always going to have the next day off. I think it’s probably a more pressing issue at a lot of other tournaments where that happens and you have to come back and play the next day. I think that’s pretty crazy. I think you can get away with it a bit more at a slam when you have the next day off, to be honest.
“But sometimes, I mean, sometimes it can be helped, they can schedule differently, and then sometimes it can’t be helped. You have those days sometimes where it’s just the women play long three-setters, the men play long five-setters, they stack and stack and stack on a court. In situations like that sometimes there’s not much that can be done.”
Fritz will start his US Open tilt with a first round match against Camilo Ugo Carabelli on Monday.
