Taylor Fritz soars in a career-best performance

An emergency post in honor of the No. 1 American proving his mettle and then some.

The win predictor—which should be retired for many reasons—gave Taylor Fritz (5) an 18% chance of beating Carlos Alcaraz (1) when they stepped on court Saturday night. It was a bit extreme, given the relative closeness of their Wimbledon semifinal match, but it accurately reflected a widespread lack of faith in Fritz as well as the invincible aura of Alcaraz.

As you guys know, I’ve been in the camp of believing the Fritz of the past two years has it in him to beat Sincaraz and Novak Djokovic if he could only get out of his own way—cut back on the overthinking, play with more confidence and less fear. Just yesterday I was lamenting his recent big match “yips,” in which he plays great for a good portion of the match but then gets tight in the key moments.

He did the opposite of that last night, playing freely, fearlessly, and betting on himself with every shot. He shut down many of Alcaraz’s magical mystery shots and was great at the net (the net!), all on a slow hard court closer to clay than the surfaces Fritz thrives on. It was inarguably a transcendent performance, as anyone without an unsettling parasocial relationship to Carlos Alcaraz will tell you.

The vibes were glorious, as they have been for Team World this whole tournament, many thanks to Andre Agassi. I knew he was a delight but holy shit, this man should be at every tennis match for the rest of time. His genuine excitement and belief in every player on the team has been a marvel and you have to imagine that’s contributed at least in part to all of their stellar performances.

But Agassi has gone out of his way to bolster Fritz before, most recently at the Wimbledon semifinal he commentated, concluding the match with this message to Fritz: “Taylor, well done. You're paving the way for every American to believe they should and can expect more from themselves."

Watching these two certified yappers talk strategy on the sidelines, with Agassi swinging back and forth between hype (“Boy, the shit you can do when you are in this condition!”) and funny reality checks (“Everything needs to be good tonight, let me bring you up to speed on that one.”) was only trumped by them running into each other’s arms like long lost lovers after Fritz won.

Agassi was so hyped after the match that he dedicated a feed post (you know it’s serious when…) to a video of Fritz set to the tune of motherfucking “My Way” by Frank Sinatra. Does it get any better than that?

“I’m just so proud of Fritzy, and I hope he realizes what he’s capable of,” Agassi said in a post-match interview.

The worst contingent of Alcaraz fans immediately jumped into defense mode, claiming inexplicably that Alcaraz (the No. 1 player in the world and a fierce competitor) just doesn’t care about “exhibitions” (for which Laver Cup doesn’t really qualify, if you go by these standards outlined by Ben Rothenberg). These matches don’t matter, Alcaraz was just preserving his body, let’s see him do it at a ‘real match,’ let’s see him do it on a different court (Ed note. The court literally favors Alcaraz and hurts Fritz), yada yada yada. You’re telling me that Carlos Alcaraz, who has played with passion in all of his past Laver Cup matches, who looked infuriated yesterday over the loss, and who brought his entire entourage barring Juan Carlos Ferrero (when many players did not)...doesn’t care? That, my friends, is a bluff.

I’ve read all the analysis I can this morning to ensure I’m not just blinded by the light, and no one with a few braincells thinks Alcaraz just handed this match to Fritz. Nor does Fritz, who is known for being very honest in his post-match pressers and is not one to overhype his own wins if he thinks they’re paltry.

When asked whether this match ranks up there with the very great wins in his career, Fritz said:

“I think I take almost more pride in this one because I feel like from start to finish, I won it and I earned it. I think many of the decisive points in the match weren’t off of him giving it to me, I felt like I made it happen in those moments. I went out and I took it.”

Something for the “it’s just an exho” contingent to chew on, I guess. That and the fact that Laver Cup matches do apply to official head-to-heads and have the added pressure of taking place not just in front of the athletes’ peers but the ultimate legends of the sport. Both Alex Michelsen and João Fonseca, for example, have discussed the resulting nerves from that this week.

Alcaraz may not have played lights out every single point, but he still Alcaraz’d quite a bit — with plenty of highlight reel, hard to reach points that Fritz frequently got to and returned well. Many top players would still have lost to the Alcaraz that showed up yesterday and yet against Fritz last night, once he got over the first game jitters, it never seemed that close.

To be clear, I’m not delusional. I don’t expect Fritz to suddenly soar to the world No. 1 spot and easily knock out Alcaraz, Sinner, and Djokovic every time they play. But I think this is a huge mental unlock for him, one that has the potential to really loosen him up and boost his confidence in future matches against those three, making more wins possible.

Not to mention that, when you factor in how little Djokovic plays outside of Slams and Alexander Zverev’s ghastly performance yesterday (a common theme of late), Fritz has a great chance of becoming world No. 3. That possibility has lurked for a while now, but if Fritz can carry his confidence from last night into future matches he’ll have it in the bag. And oh, what a collective delight that would be.

---

If you want a deeper dive into the past few weeks of tennis news, check out yesterday’s post in which I did some kind of reverse psychology witchcraft with a few of my takes.

---

Thanks for reading! If you have tennis news or tips to share, email jessica@hard-court.com.