An American on Tour battles to maintain the esteemed No. 1 American ranking as the entire world watches the second Grand Slam of the year. At No. 12 in the world right now, Taylor Fritz is under pressure from Ben Shelton and Tommy Paul to take the top American place.
In 2024, Taylor Fritz
Fritz has so far experienced success in his tournament career. In the Australian Open, he defeated seventh seed Stefanos Tsitsipas in four sets to advance to his maiden quarterfinal match. Tsitsipas has prevailed in three of their four prior meetings, including a victory in Melbourne in the 2022 fourth round. Fritz, on the other hand, used a powerful serving game, winning 86% of their first-serve points with 13 aces. On the most successful court in Serbia, he met world No. 1 Novak Djokovic in the quarterfinal. Djokovic won a close first set 7–6(3) to take the lead. Fritz prevailed 4-6 in the second set, but he was unable to hold off a determined Djokovic. The Serbian won the last two sets, 6-2 6-3, to seal the match.
He successfully defended his title at Delray Beach, defeating Tommy Paul, another American. After getting a bye and going to the second round of the Miami Open, he was defeated in straight sets by Brazilian No. 1 Thiago Seyboth Wild.
Form of Clay
His form has been getting better ever since. Regaining his position as the top American player, he advanced to his first clay court final. He defeated Christian Garin at the Bavarian International Tennis Championships in Munich. At the age of 33, he met Jan-Lennard Struff, who defeated the American in straight sets and won his maiden championship.
He defeated eighth seed Hubert Hurkacz, Luciano Darderi, and Sebastian Baez in the Madrid Open to go to the quarterfinals, where he was matched against Argentinian Francisco Cerundolo. He put up a fierce fight and won the opening set decisively. He lost momentum in the second set, but he picked himself up and won 6-1 3-6 6-3. He went on to play Andrey Rublev in the semifinal. With an incredibly powerful serve and forehand, the Russian was in terrific form and did not allow the American any breathing room. Rublev advanced to the final after winning 6-4 6-3.
Fritz once again showed his power on clay at the Italian Open. To get to the quarterfinals, he overcame Grigor Dimitrov, Fabio Fognini, and fellow countryman Sebastian Korda. Alexander Zverev, who had stormed in with his excellent baseline play and nearly perfect serve, confronted him in the quarterfinal. The score was 6-4 6-3 for the German. Fritz made history at the Italian Open by being the first male American to reach the quarterfinals or above in each of the three clay-court Masters events.
Fritz easily won the opening round in Paris this week. Federico Coria of Argentina was his opponent. Following a challenging opening set, he recovered well, breaking Coria’s service eight times to win the match 2-6 6-1 6-2 6-1.
Fritz has put on some amazing clay performances, and with the correct attitude, he can go far and could even challenge for the grand slam. He goes up against Dušan Lajović of Serbia in the tournament’s second round.
