"I'm definitely the worst dancer" - Taylor Fritz reflects on Tommy Paul's wedding before potential DC Open showdown

Back on home soil, it was the perfect start for Taylor Fritz at the DC Open, taking down Zizou Bergs 6-3, 6-4 to book his spot in round two. He could face a certain Tommy Paul in the second round just weeks after attending his wedding.

There were just two breaks in the match as Fritz stayed firm on serve, controlling the match as he saw it through. It was not all comfortable, however. After missing a set point, the American had to survive three break points amid more wasted chances to eventually take a one-set lead. The second set was relatively routine with his first match point being coolly converted.

Following the match, Fritz opened up on the challenges of facing the Belgian. "I mean, it's tough to get a rhythm here," he told the Tennis Channel. "I think the balls are flying, and I kind of knew going into the match there were going to be more errors in general from both players.

"Zizou is such a hyper-aggressive player. Every time he steps in, he just crushes the ball. So I knew I was never really going to be the one controlling the points unless I hit a big serve and he hit a defensive return. Even then, he's trying to go big on my next shot. I just had to focus on my serve and try to put balls in the court."

That forementioned trouble Fritz had serving out for the set was soon settled after finally getting some good serves in, but the rocky road left him uneasy at times. "I felt like I was serving really well in that set up to that point. It wasn't a bad service game, but there were a couple of serves I maybe could have hit better," he admitted.

"I was looking over thinking, "Why does this happen when I'm serving for the set?" He was absolutely drilling returns on the baseline. It's just one of those things. He does that - he'll suddenly turn it on for a couple of games. So it was massive for me to fight through that game."

Fritz's grass swing was a welcoming return to form after his 2026 has been influenced by injury trouble, specifically on clay where he missed numerous events. He finally found some momentum on his favourite surface, but no titles despite two finals is a bitter blow.

His knee would then heavily impact and destroy any title ambitions at Wimbledon. Taking on Alexander Zverev in the quarter-finals, it started to have issues again and he needed a medical timeout to have it looked at. The good news is that he is fresh and raring to go with no new problems to touch upon.

"It feels good now," he confirmed. "I've done so much work to get the knee to a point where I could play as much as I did during the grass-court season without it flaring up. I played nine matches in 11 days between Stuttgart and Halle, and I think five or six of those were three-set matches, then obviously Wimbledon as well."

She spoke on the injury a little bit more. "It's just knee tendinitis, and it takes a long time to rebuild and strengthen the tendon. It's not fully there yet in terms of how much load it can handle. If I play for a month straight and I'm playing lots of matches, it might reach a point where it needs a bit of rest. But if it gets a couple of days, then I'm back. It's going to be a process, but I'd much rather do what I did during the whole grass-court season and deal with the fact that it might flare up for a day or two than not play at all."

It was a bit of a stab in the dark when it came to the transition from grass to hardcourt. "I'm not sure yet. I really just have to play these events and see how I react. I'll keep doing all my strengthening work and, over time, it's going to get stronger. I'll continue building up the tendon so it'll be able to handle all the pounding that comes with playing tennis."

Most importantly, the knee seemed fine to pull off some dance moves at fellow American Paul's wedding. "I mean, I'm not much of a dancer," he acknowledged. "You've got to get out there and jump around with everyone a little bit."

There were loads of weddings occurring in the off-season. One of which very close to Fritz's heart was seeing Paul tie the knot with Paige Lorenze after three years being together. Other notable names included Frances Tiafoe and Reilly Opelka.

Fritz, who admittedly was not a dancer, still proceeded to have a good time as he underlined Tiafoe as the 'life of the party.' "I'm definitely the worst dancer," he joked. "I don't know who the best dancer was, but the life of the party has got to be Foe."

Before the event itself, the former US Open finalist brought a number of people together for a bit of a scary game. In a type of 'bottle roulette' video, the person that it lands on gets the chance to fire tennis balls at the other participants who are blindly running away in the distance.

"I kind of rolled my ankle stepping into that one," he stated. "I saw someone playing a similar game where they were throwing eggs at each other. It was the same concept. I thought it'd be really funny if we did it with a racket and a tennis ball."

While maybe not the best idea with his injury, Fritz was all about having a good time. "No. We're just having fun. You get to a point where, if I can't run in a straight line and hit a tennis ball, then I probably shouldn't even get out of bed in the morning."

An interesting development is that both Fritz and Paul could step onto the court against each other in the second round of the event. This represents how stacked the lineup is in Washington as two of the USA's best players could clash this early in the tournament.

While not confirmed yet, with Paul set to face Kamil Majchrzak, Fritz is prepared for that prospect. "It'll be interesting. That would be a very tough second round. Tommy being unseeded makes the draw really difficult. We've played each other so many times. We're great friends and we'll still be friends afterwards."