Taylor Fritz has failed to back up his run to the US Open final, having lost at the quarter-final stage to Novak Djokovic.
It marked an 11th-straight defeat to the Serbian superstar, who well and truly has the number of the top-ranked American.
Form seems to go out of the window whenever they meet, and it’s becoming a worrying trend for Taylor Fritz that spans across the top players.
And the issue is not technical or physical.
After all, he can compete with them in both areas, and especially against Djokovic, biology dictates that he would have more than enough to outlast a man 11 years his senior.
Perhaps, frustratingly for Fritz, the only solution to his biggest problem is time.
Taylor Fritz’s coach has pointed out a worrying trend
After all, it only feels like now we are seeing the 27-year-old regularly make deep runs at the elite events.
After so many years of threatening to challenge, last year marked a breakthrough, and he has backed it up impressively throughout 2025 as well.
However, whenever he gets to the latter stages, inevitably facing one of Djokovic, Carlos Alcaraz or Jannik Sinner, he seems to freeze.
Even his own coach said before yesterday’s match: “Playing Jannik [Sinner] in the final was tricky, him having already had that experience of winning a Grand Slam title. It was Taylor’s first final, at home. He was obviously extremely nervous.”
Then, during the match, he told ESPN: “He’s giving Novak too much credit – just stay in the rally and find a forehand to go after. A lot of it is psychological; he has lost to him 10 times, but it’s the US Open – get the crowd involved and just relax.”
Fritz rated Djokovic’s struggles during their match, citing the opportunities he failed to capitalise on as he exited in four sets.
Taylor Fritz is adapting to playing on the biggest stages
It’s telling that Fritz’s first-ever Grand Slam quarter-final only came in 2022. Since then, he has made a further six, including one semi-final, and last year’s US Open final.
The strides he has made over the last three years have been meteoric, regularly giving himself chances to challenge for elite honours.
However, all of those losses have come against one of Djokovic, Alcaraz, Sinner or even Rafael Nadal, with Lorenzo Musetti the sole outlier.
Against the sport’s elite, he freezes.
What is particularly frustrating for Fritz is that the only remedy for this issue is continuing to plug away, reaching those rounds, and gaining experience.
After all, he has the technical and physical qualities needed to compete.
Eventually, it will click. And when it does, he could become the true shining light of American tennis, and actually usurp the current duopoly that are dominating men’s tennis.
