Fritz joins field for ASB Classic
The ASB Classic has signed up the hottest prospect in men’s tennis for next year’s tournament in Auckland.
The 19-year-old Taylor Fritz recently won the ATP Star of Tomorrow award, which is given to the youngest player ranked inside the top 100 at the end of the year. He finished 2016 at 77 in the world.
This year Fritz defeated top 30 players Jeremy Chardy, Steve Johnson and made it to the final of the Memphis Open, but his most memorable match was a loss.
At Stuttgart’s Mercedes Cup in June, Fritz went close to beating Roger Federer before eventually losing 6-4 5-7 6-4. It was a result that said a lot about the quality of Fritz, but also the fighting spirit of arguably the greatest players of all time.
Fritz signed to come to the Classic back in February with Classic tournament director Karl Budge making him one of his first targets for 2017. ‘‘He’s someone we spotted last year, after his junior Grand Slam success,’’ Budge said.
‘‘He won the Junior US Open and got to the final at Roland Garros, so we had our eye on him early on.
‘‘We locked him in early and we were lucky, the week after we did the deal with Taylor, he made a semi-final the following week and a final the week after that. So we probably wouldn’t have got it done if we’d waited another two weeks.’’
There have been a number of false dawns in America’s hopes to get another player to the top of the world.
It’s 16 years since the last American won a men’s Grand Slam, Andy Roddick at the US Open in 2003.
Jack Sock, Donald Young and Ryan Harrison were all tipped for great things, but have so far fallen short. The likes of John Isner, Johnson and Sam Querrey have all had solid careers, but without that expectation on them to be the next Andre Agassi or Pete Sampras.
But in Fritz and 18-year-old Frances Tiafoe there justified hope that the drought could end.
‘‘American tennis has got an incredible crop of young guys coming through,’’ Budge said.
‘‘They have five or six players who look like they could become top 20 players and Taylor is the lead of that pack.’’