Fritz withstands blitz, stays calm, carries on

Taylor Fritz used to struggle under pressure, but yesterday, he showed that there’s now few better at dealing with stress.

The 21-year-old American continued the run of seeds crashing out of the ASB Classic, taking down top seed and two-time Auckland champion John Isner, 7-6 (3), 7-6 (5).

Normally, Isner’s booming serve — he hit 26 aces in the match — causes opponents serious issues in tiebreakers, but Fritz has become somewhat of a specialist in deciders in his short time on the ATP Tour.

Fritz had the best record in tiebreakers of anyone on Tour last year, and showed again that strength under pressure again yesterday.

“One of the strongest parts of my game is how I handle the pressure,” said the world No 50.

“That’s what made the difference for me in tiebreaks, just being able to play well in those pressure situations.”

It didn’t use to be like that. Fritz has dealt with pressure for years, with the junior US Open champion and former junior world No 1 having high expectations foisted on him by the expectant US tennis community.

“It was a lot to deal with when I was 18 years old; I think I let it affect me too much when I was older. I definitely cared too much about what people said and what people thought,” said Fritz.

“I’m doing much better than I did originally. The last year or two I’ve not been so concerned about what people are saying or thinking about me — you lose one match and people start saying how bad you are. I’m just doing my own thing. I’m going to progress at my own rate and try to grow into the player I want to be.”

Fritz was the second fastest American to reach an ATP final, doing so in just his third career ATP tournament, in Memphis in 2016. The only American faster? Isner, whose dangerous serve was negated by the unflustered Fritz.

“For the most part I stayed pretty calm on my serve, I didn’t really panic. That can happen sometimes when you are playing someone who has such a big serve. You know if you are down, and you get broken you are probably going to lose the set.

“I stayed pretty calm, did a good job protecting my serve and felt I did really good returning his serve. When he didn’t hit an unreturnable serve, whenever he had a chance to get a racket to it, I did, so I think that made the difference.”

It was Fritz’ second win over a top 10 player, and with the draw wide open, it’s not inconceivable that he could still be around come the weekend.

He plays Auckland-raised Cameron Norrie in the quarter-finals after Norrie took down Joao Sousa 7-6, 6-4, but was nonchalant when asked when he had any preferences for the rest of the tournament.

“I’m pretty laid back and relaxed — whatever.”

The words of a man feeling no pressure as the big matches loom.