"I was slipping a lot" says Taylor Fritz, blames lack of clay as Madrid Open run comes to an end at semi-final stage

ATP
Saturday, 04 May 2024 at 23:00
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Taylor Fritz analyzed his loss to Andrey Rublev in the semifinals of the Madrid Open and stated that the clay density on the central court was different from the other courts in the tournament. The world No. 13 played on all three stadiums at Caja Magica and considered the conditions of the main stadium to be slower.

Rublev took only 72 minutes to reach his fifth final of a Masters 1000 tournament in his career. Fritz started the match with an early break, but he couldn't break his opponent's serve again and ended his journey in Madrid being soundly defeated by the Russian.

Challenges on Center Court: Taylor Fritz discussed court conditions

The American played his first two rounds against Luciano Darderi and Sebastian Baez on Court 3, both with easy straight-set victories. In the round of 16, he moved to the Arantxa Sanchez Stadium, the second in importance, and also secured the win against Hubert Hurkacz with a score of 7-6, 6-4.

His subsequent matches were on the Court Manolo Santana in the quarterfinals against Francisco Cerundolo (6-1, 3-6, 6-3), and two days later, he fell to the Russian world No. 8 with a score of 4-6, 3-6.

"When I was playing on I guess Arantxa Sanchez [Vicario] and Stadium 3. I feel like, for sure, it's faster in there it's bouncing higher in there. Center court's definitely slower and it was pretty slippery as well," Fritz said.

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Fritz achieved his 250th victory at ATP Tour level in the quarterfinals against Cerundolo

"I wish I would have served a lot better. I've been serving well all week, I didn't serve well and I just felt very, like I said, I felt like the court was, I know for a fact that there's not as much clay on Center than all the other courts," he added.

"I can literally, when I'm taking little steps I can hear my feet squeaking because it's hitting like the hard surface underneath the clay... I wanted to take some pretty, like, aggressive steps to get back into the court I was just slipping a lot," he added.

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