Taylor Fritz is brimming with confidence at Australian Open 2025.
"I'd say my confidence is, I don't know, it's pretty high, like an eight [out of 10]," the 27-year-old said after his 6-2 6-0 6-3 defeat of fellow American Jenson Brooksby in the first round.
"[It was] even better toward the end of last year... I've been playing pretty well since the start of the year," he added. "[At the] United Cup I played pretty well. There's no reason for me not to be very confident."
That win over Brooksby brought up Fritz’s 205th ATP-level match triumph since the start of 2020. He is the only non-European player to have claimed at least 200 victories on the Tour in that timespan.
Fritz – the first American man to hold a top five seeding in the singles at a Grand Slam since Andy Roddick at Wimbledon in 2010, and the first to do so at Melbourne Park since James Blake in 2007 – kept up the momentum with another comprehensive win in the second round. He needed just 82 minutes to beat qualifier Cristian Garin 6-2 6-1 6-0.
Since 1988, when the AO moved to Melbourne Park and became a 128-player tournament, only Rafael Nadal in 2011 (four) and Roger Federer in 2008 (six) have dropped fewer games than Fritz in 2025 (eight) on their way to reaching the third round.
Only two men in the Open era have claimed the singles title without dropping a set – Ken Rosewall (1971) and Federer (2007). Fritz has a long way to go, but so far he has been imperious.
He has dropped just eight games so far. That is just two shy of the record low number of games conceded for a player that has reached the third round at any Grand Slam, which is six, set by Federer at AO 2008 (counting completed matches only).
The best record for games dropped on the way to a men’s singles Grand Slam title in the 21st century, meanwhile, is 41 – this was set at Roland Garros 2008 by Nadal.
And with two bagels already to his name, Fritz is already just one more 6-0 game shy of the record at a Grand Slam. The last player to drop three bagels on their opponents at a major was Federer, at AO 2006.
Fritz will not be getting too far ahead of himself, but he is tracking well compared to those record efforts.
The world No.4 ended 2024 strongly. After reaching the final of the US Open, losing to Jannik Sinner, Fritz finished 2024 with impressive runs to the semifinals of the Shanghai Masters and to the showpiece match of the ATP Finals in Turin – world No.1 Sinner got the better of him in Turin, too.
Those defeats seem to have made him stronger, though. Alongside Coco Gauff, he helped the United States to United Cup glory in preparation for AO 2025.
Fritz has now won 16 AO matches, equalling his best tally of wins at any of the Slams (16 at the US Open). In fact, his AO win rate of 66.6% (16-8) is his best among the four Grand Slam events.
Standing in the way of Fritz and a place in the round of 16 is veteran campaigner Gael Monfils, the oldest player to win an ATP Tour-level trophy – a record he set in Auckland on the eve of AO 2025.
Indeed, Monfils is now aiming to become the oldest player to defeat a top five seed at the AO since the ATP rankings were first published.
MORE: AO 2025 men's singles draw
Fritz won his only previous match against Monfils at ATP level, triumphing in straight sets in the second round at AO 2019, and has won four of his last five meetings with French opponents.
A win would mean he has reached the round of 16 in five successive Slams for the first time, while the American is vying for a third fourth-round appearance at the AO.
Fritz is a force to be reckoned with, and the draw could be opening up kindly as he hunts that maiden major title.