"I think it's a really dangerous thing": Fritz warns off 'high expectations' of future American stars after emergence of Shelton

Taylor Fritz spoke out against people putting high expectations of young player coming out of the US with the latest example being Ben Shelton.

The youngster made waves at the Australian Open reaching the second week at his first grand slam event. Many proclaimed him the next big superstar but Fritz is against such narratives. Talking to media following his win over Shelton in Indian Wells, the American called it 'dangerous' as he has experience with it:

"I think it’s a really dangerous thing that people do putting crazy expectations on young American players. He’s really talented. He’s super dangerous if he’s playing well, just with the serve and the weapons that he has. He definitely has a really bright future. He’s got a super explosive game and he has a lot of stuff that he can still — a lot of stuff that he will improve on.”

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Fritz has some experience with it as he was long-touted as a promising young players who only found his footing after a few years on the Tour. He's now a top 5 ranked player but it took time for Fritz to build himself up to this leven even though the talent was always there. He looked back on his own experience:

"I felt like it was something that I maybe wasn’t ready for when I was 18, 19, and I think I was too young at the time to properly deal with it. I think it probably hurt me. I see it hurt a lot of young players because one of the most dangerous things that you can be dealing with in sports is having a lot of expectations and having a lot of pressure. It stops you from sometimes playing and competing as freely as you would like.”

He conluded with:

“I wish I would have cared a lot less about all that stuff when I was younger, and I think that I could have had the progress in my game that I’ve had in the last couple of years maybe sooner.”

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