Taylor Fritz on Sunday earned one of the biggest wins of his career when he defeated top seed Rafael Nadal on his Nitto ATP Finals debut. Eight days earlier, the American did not know he would be competing in the tournament.
The 25-year-old was on vacation in Switzerland with his girlfriend Morgan Riddle when World No. 1 Carlos Alcaraz withdrew from the season finale. Fritz’s coach, Michael Russell, received a call from his player.
“He FaceTimed me because we were in Switzerland, but separate places. Obviously he was so excited,” Russell told ATPTour.com. “We’ve all had an amazing year. He’s been playing so well and we [had] gotten close to getting directly in and obviously [it was] unfortunate with Carlos having the ab injury. We didn’t know how serious it was and you don’t want somebody to be injured of course. Such a great player, a nice guy.
“When he did have to pull out and Taylor got in, he was just so ecstatic. He was ecstatic obviously to come and be an alternate, but to get in directly and have a chance to play for the title, it just gives you that extra adrenaline and motivation.”
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Photo Credit: Corinne Dubreuil/ATP Tour
Although Fritz and Russell both traveled to Switzerland, they were far from checked out.
“He didn’t play well in Paris unfortunately. But we said, ‘Okay, we’re going to take a few days off, rest, recharge, go to Switzerland, use a little mini vacation’. Then [at] the beginning of this week, we went full-on with the training and used it as a preseason the first three days,” Russell said. “We trained really hard, so he was pretty sore the first few days. But we needed to have that fitness, that strength and the time on court so he could feel confident.”
The night before playing Nadal, Fritz practised in the evening at the Pala Alpitour to create conditions as similar as possible to the match. The American then levelled his ATP Head2Head series at 2-2 against the legendary lefty with an impressive performance full of aggressive play.
“I think I like it more [playing a top opponent like Nadal immediately] because when I play the top guys, I just always play better tennis because I know I need to. I know I’m not going to get away with anything less than my best tennis,” Fritz said. “When I have those shots on the court, ‘Should I go for it?’ I’m pulling the trigger more. I’m much more prone to play a not-so-good match against a lower-ranked person who I really,…
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