Taylor Fritz recalled his shock win against Alexander Zverev, and said that it was a moment of paramount importance for him.
Fritz’s lack of tournament fortune is well-known. He constantly failed to make deep progress on the biggest stages and always came up a little short. However, the Indian Wells saw him go a long way and beat some established names in doing so.
The World No. 23 beat Matteo Berrettini and Jannik Sinner to set up a quarter-final match with Zverev. He prevailed against the German as he came back from a set down to beat him 4-6 6-3 7-6 (3).
Fritz recalled his shock win against Zverev, and said that the win was a pivotal moment in his career.
“Even before Indian Wells, I was thinking it wasn’t my best year, but I was putting myself in good positions in lots of tournaments,” he said, as quoted by Tennis World USA.
“I just kept losing that ‘next match’. Then at Indian Wells I was able to win that next match, those ‘next two matches,’ that put me deeper into tournaments. That made me very happy with the year.”
Jinx
When asked about his uncanny tendency to always lose the third round of a tournament, Fritz said, “Yeah, it had been on my mind a little bit.
“But at the same time I knew the reason I was losing those matches was because I was playing a lot of those too passively. I have started doing a better job with that. Once you win a couple of matches playing like that, it’s easier to keep doing the same thing.
“All those wins were equally good, but beating Zverev was a big deal. It was a third-set tiebreaker for me to go to my first Masters semi.
“Typically, before that, I would have been very nervous going into that match, but this time I wasn’t. I felt comfortable just going after the ball with aggression. Not only did the win feel amazing, but how I went after it and still won felt really good, too,” he concluded.
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