Standing at 3-3 in the final set of his fourth-round match with Stefanos Tsitsipas at Australian Open 2024 on Sunday, Taylor Fritz took a deep breath and cleared his mind.
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What followed was an example to any player trying to play their best under pressure. The American didn’t overthink, he didn’t try to do anything different, he just let his body do what it’s been trained to do. It’s called being in the zone.
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The result was a 7-6 (3) 5-7 6-3 6-3 victory over the Greek, a finalist here last year, and a place in the quarterfinals of a slam for the third time, but first in Melbourne.
“I'm really happy,” said the 26-year-old, after hitting 50 winners and just 19 unforced errors. “I think, start to finish, I played really well. Especially, I'm super-happy about the way I finished it.
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“The last three games of the match I really, really turned it on, almost like (I) was in a trance and everything. Just felt good. I felt like I knew exactly what shot to hit, the right decision to make on every ball. It's great. It's been a while since I've had that feeling, so it gives me a lot of confidence.”
In an era when every shot in every game in every match is analysed, with data available for use by coaches during matches, Fritz managed not to let anything get in the way of his tennis as he picked up his first win over a top-10 player in a slam.
It probably helped that he already knew he was going to win. “I told them (my team) that I was going to win,” he said on court. “My girlfriend said I was being a bit too confident."
Tsitsipas had won their three most recent encounters, but Fritz looked dialled in throughout.
“I just felt very relaxed and confident about the match, not really uptight, worried, like I can be, like I probably was for all my other matches to be honest," he said.
“I had a feeling I was going to play well. I guess what happened the last couple games where I just feel super, super locked in, like where I just am letting the ball go and I feel like I can't miss, I feel like I know the right shot to hit. Yeah, I mean, I wish I knew how to always get into that.”
By contrast, Tsitsipas admitted that he went into the match with a little more fear than usual.
“What I was thinking is that I have a big match coming up and there's an opponent that I've played before at the Australian Open who likes these courts, and his game is suited for hard courts and he's got a lot of power, he's got a big serve,” Tsitsipas said.
“These were things that I was for sure concerned going into the match and I had to be prepared to face. I didn't face them the best way, but he played really well and he deserves the win because he did everything possible to kind of not let me dictate or be in control of any point.”
Next up for Fritz is a meeting with 10-time Australian Open champion Novak Djokovic, who has won all eight of their matches.
Fritz pushed Djokovic to five sets when they met at the AO in 2022, but other than that, has not picked up a set against the 24-time Grand Slam winner, who advanced earlier on Sunday after beating Frenchman Adrian Mannarino in straight sets.
“To be honest, the only decent match I've played against him in our last couple meetings was in Turin at the end of '22. In that match I served for the second set. It was pretty close. Since then when I've played him, I've played pretty poor, I think," Fritz said.
“I think that I have a lot more level to bring than I've previously brought against him. Hopefully I can play another match like today.”