“People don’t know tennis,” Taylor Fritz introspects his Wimbledon quarter-final loss to ‘injured’ Rafael Nadal
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Rafael Nadal and Taylor Fritz at Wimbledon 2022 (Image Credit: Global Times)
Taylor Fritz may have had a successful and inspiring season in 2022; however, he still has to improve his performances to prove his mettle on the biggest stage. In a recent interview, he gave his insights on myriad topics. Mostly ranging from tennis to the many issues that concern him.
The No.1 ranked male American tennis player has won 3 ATP singles titles. He won his first ATP singles title this year, Indian Wells Open 2022. This title came after 3 long years without success in any season. Also, he won the Eastbourne International again. He won it last time in 2019.
This year, however, he showed considerable improvement at Wimbledon 2022. He reached the Quarter-Finals round of The Championships. He looked impressive, but he could not pass the challenge of 22-time Grand Slam champion Rafael Nadal. The Spaniard was injured and in immense pain; still he mustered enough courage and force to knock out the American.
Taylor Fritz took few moments to introspect this defeat in the interview.
“I felt like from the ground, forehand, backhand, movements, he was normal. Maybe for a couple of games it seemed like different, but in the fourth and the fifth set he was getting the balls back that a lot of people normally wouldn’t. The biggest difference with the injury was the serve. He started to serve maybe ten miles per hour slower, but I actually felt I was returning the serve better when he was serving it harder, because it was coming at me more and I had more pace to work with,” the World No.9 said.
When he started serving it softer because of the injury, I had to step up in the court more and I also had to swing more on the return because I had less pace to work with. So it sounds weird, but I actually felt like it was almost a bit tougher for me to hit strong-deep returns off of the softer serve,” he further continued.
Taylor Fritz talked about being mocked by tennis fans
The World No.9 lost the clash against Rafael Nadal, 6-3, 5-7, 6-3, 5-7, 6-7 in the quarter-final round of Wimbledon 2022. However, what is even worse is that he lost against a tennis player who was not 100% fit and not able to serve well.
Taylor Fritz was later criticized and mocked by tennis fans and commentators for not being able to defeat the 22-time Grand Slam champion, despite his injury woes. However, the American does not agree with them a bit. He also emphasized on Rafa’s backhand, which put Fritz lot of trouble.
“People don’t know tennis as we know tennis. They though you know, Rafa slicing all of his backhands, they think that’s because he had bad abs. Any match Rafa he has played against me, he slices his backhands. It is his strategy, it’s smart. He doesn’t want to hit over a backhand and then I have a shoulder high forehand than I can hit. He always slices against me to give me nothing to work with. I saw a million people like: ‘Oh, he couldn’t hit backhands and you lost to him’. No, like, that’s how he plays me and the only difference in the game was his serve and that actually made it tougher for me,” he further added.
Taylor Fritz will soon head to Australia to participate in the inaugural edition of the United Cup.
Also Read: Nick Kyrgios defends exhibition events while criticizing the ATP-250 events for ‘Diluting’ tennis
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