Taylor Fritz bounced back from his loss to Carlos Alcaraz in the Wimbledon semi-final, defeating the Spaniard in straight sets at the Laver Cup on Saturday.
The American had never defeated Alcaraz before, but endeavoured to claim victory for the first time in San Francisco, putting Team World in a strong position on day two of the Laver Cup.
At Wimbledon, Fritz spurned set points in the fourth set tiebreak, before going on to lose 6-4, 5-7, 6-3, 7-6.
Fritz, who has a big opportunity on the horizon, showed few signs of a hangover from his Wimbledon defeat to Alcaraz when playing the Spaniard again at the Laver Cup, where he won 6-2, 6-3.
Following his victory over the Spaniard, Fritz explained what he had learned from his brutal loss to Alcaraz just two months previous.
Taylor Fritz has learned to trust himself on the big points against the ‘top guys’
Speaking to reporters after defeating Alcaraz, Fritz spoke of a need to ‘trust’ himself on the big points against elite ATP Tour players.
The American had struggled against Alcaraz historically, failing to win any of their previous three encounters on the ATP Tour.
“I mean, yeah, execution is a massive part of it,” the American said.
“The one thing that I did today that I think I’ve struggled with against some of the guys, the top guys in the past, was just really trusting it on the big points, pulling the trigger, not having that doubt of like, ‘oh, I don’t want to give him a freebie on a big point, so I’m going to play it a little safer,’ which I said I think that works against 90 per cent of people.
“But against the top guys, they’re not just going to give you those big points.
“I think that was one of the biggest takeaways I learned in the Wimbledon match. I had two forehands on big points in the fourth set tiebreaker that I was a little too safe on, because I didn’t want to just spray one. I wish I could go back and just rope it.
“If I miss, I miss. I think I did a good job of really committing to that today.
“Yeah, like I said, I raised my average rally ball speed, and on another day that could obviously just end in me leaking way too many unforced errors and giving way too many free points. That’s happened in the past in certain matchups where I kind of overplay a bit.
“Like I said, because of the nature of the conditions of how slow it is, I did feel like I was forced to.”
Fritz’s victory over Alcaraz helped Team World secure a commanding lead over Team Europe. Alex de Minaur and Francisco Cerundolo had also won their singles matches, and de Minaur and Alex Michelsen teamed up to defeat Casper Ruud and Holger Rune, giving the team in red a 9-3 lead heading into day three.
Taylor Fritz makes Laver Cup history
Taylor Fritz’s comprehensive victory over Carlos Alcaraz launched the American into rarefied Laver Cup air.
As per OptaAce, Fritz’s victory over Alcaraz made him the first American player to claim a Singles win at the Laver Cup on American soil.
Before victory on Sunday, Americans had lost all eight of their previous Laver Cup matches on American soil.
This year’s edition of the Laver Cup marks the third occasion the tournament has been hosted in the US. In 2018, the tournament was played out in Chicago, and in 2021 at TD Garden in Boston.
