It was reasonable to expect something more from Taylor Fritz this season in terms of results, considering that the American ace had made significant improvements in the latter part of last year by reaching his first Grand Slam final at the US Open and also hitting the last act at the Nitto ATP Finals in Turin (he had been defeated by former world No.1 Jannik Sinner in both cases).
He seemed to be able to aspire to win a Major title in 2025, but Carlitos Alcaraz and Jannik Sinner have shown that they have an edge over him again and Fritz himself has understood that he must further improve his game if he wants to try to break the dominance of these two young champions.
Taylor took away the satisfaction of beating the 22-year-old Spaniard for the first time in his career during the 2025 edition of the Laver Cup, staged at the Chase Center in San Francisco last weekend. He put in one of the best performances of his career without giving any chance to the six-time Grand Slam champion, who congratulated him and highlighted his improvements. Fritz and Alcaraz faced each other again in the Tokyo ATP 500 final and the Murcia star took revenge in two sets, also benefiting from a small injury that did not allow his opponent to play his best tennis in the second part of that clash.
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Fritz is knocking on the door
The world No.4 suffered from extreme heat and humidity at the Shanghai Rolex Masters and failed to confirm the semi-final reached in 2024, but hopes to shine in the final tournaments of the season and particularly at the Finals.
On the latest episode of 'The Inside-In Tennis Podcast', Mark Kovacs praised Fritz for improving his game a lot over the past 12 months: Hes now knocking on the door, if youre going to say Whos the player to challenge Sinner and Alcaraz right now?, Taylor is right up there; hes that third, fourth guy that is knocking on the door.
Hes had a very consistent team for a number of years now, and theyve been working on that consistency, and you can see it. Hes performing at a really high level.
