"It’s pretty embarrassing": Taylor Fritz frustrated as major flaw marks 10th straight loss to Novak Djokovic at US Open

Taylor Fritz admitted frustration after his US Open exit at the hands of Novak Djokovic, lamenting missed opportunities but also pointing to positives in his performance.

Fritz was defeated 6-3, 7-5, 3-6, 6-4 in favour of Djokovic and he was dejected in his press conference at the US Open as he made it 10-0 in favour of the Serbian who set up a potential clash with Jannik Sinner next up. While the American couldn't back up his final run last year.

“From the third set, I served a lot better than I did in the first and second. From the ground, I don’t think I played that much better. I have to be honest, the first three sets weren’t great," said Fritz.

“I think the level in the fourth set was probably the best level that I played. He played a lot better in the fourth set as well. Really, the only difference in the third set from the first two sets was I just served well and I converted a break point. That was the big difference. Typically, that’s all I need to do to win a set—convert a break point and serve well. And yeah, the first two sets just weren’t it for that.”

One of the key frustrations for Fritz came in the form of missed break point chances, as he failed to convert until his 11th opportunity. “To be honest, the fact that I was like 0-for-10 actually almost sounds better for me than it really was, because that’s not counting how many times I had 15-30, love-30, 30-all,” Fritz explained. “Like the fact that I was 0-for-10, that’s putting it nicely. I had so many more chances that you’re not going to see on the stat line.

“I was just playing those points really poorly. Out of the 10, I’d say like five or six of them he played pretty well. Tough for me to do too much. And maybe like four of them, I just played a bad point or was too conservative or pulled the trigger at the wrong time. It’s bad decision-making because I wasn’t playing as well as I would have wanted to. So it gets a little bit tough in those pressure situations to know what I want to do if it’s not really working for me.”

Despite the loss, Fritz felt he was not far away from turning the match around. “His level was much higher in the fourth set, and mine was too,” he said. “The fourth set was the only set where it was pretty good tennis from the baseline consistently from both of us. We both cut down on the mistakes.

“The frustrating part is that I had all those chances in the first two sets when I wasn’t even playing that well. I just can’t come out of those first two sets down two sets to love. I need to play better—and I don’t even need to play that much better to make it happen.

“At the end of the day, that’s what makes the great players great: they win the big points. I knew I’d have to go out and take those points from him, and I didn’t. A lot of my weapons, my aggressive shots, just weren’t there and were letting me down. So it was tough to go out and take those points.”

Coming into the match, Fritz identified Djokovic’s serve as a key factor—and he felt it played a big role again. “He always serves well. On his first serve he hits the spots well, gets a good amount of free points and aces,” Fritz said. “I thought I did a decent job putting returns in the court.

“What’s made it tough in the past is the variance in his second serve. I’d love to attack it more, but it’s tough. Sometimes he throws in a softer serve in the middle of the box or to the backhand, but it’s tough to attack those when I’m also ready for this big second serve that he goes into the forehand on, especially on the ad side.

“He loves to hit like a 110, almost like a three-quarter first serve, slider into the forehand. And to be honest, he does it every time he plays me. It’s pretty embarrassing the amount of times I was sitting on it, waiting for it, and still missed the return. I just can’t really let that happen.”

With Djokovic now facing the prospect of back-to-back challenges against Carlos Alcaraz and Jannik Sinner, Fritz acknowledged the scale of the task but also reflected on the excitement of the opportunity. “The level definitely went up in the fourth set, he served better, made fewer mistakes, played better. The first three sets, I don’t think either one of us played our best tennis,” Fritz said.

“It just depends how much this one took out of him. I can’t speak for him, but I was really excited at the fact that I had the opportunity to do the coolest thing ever—play Novak, then potentially Carlos, then Sinner. I thought that was kind of cool. I liked the challenge.

“And knowing Novak, being the competitor he is, I’m sure he’s very excited for that challenge too.”