Kim Clijsters, Micheal Russell show support for Taylor Fritz after the American is snubbed of ATP's Most Improved Player of 2022 award nomination

On Thursday, Taylor Fritz made public his disappointment at missing out on a nomination in the Most Improved Player of the Year category at the 2022 ATP Awards.

His opinion received endorsements from a few retired players like his current coach Michael Russell, Belgian icon Kim Clijsters and Justin Gimelstob.

44-year-old Russell took to social media to repeat Fritz's words, stating that his pupil deserved to get nominated along with Carlos Alcaraz, Maxime Cressy, Jack Draper, and Holger Rune.

"Disappointing to see that you weren’t nominated," Russell tweeted.

Four-time Grand Slam winner Clijsters also came forward to show her support for the 25-year-old American as she wrote:

"Definitely."

Former American player Gimelstob, who retired from professional tennis in 2007, lauded Fritz for speaking out fearlessly.

"Completely agree and love that you aren’t afraid to call it out," Gimelstob wrote.

Taylor Fritz played a total of 67 matches in 2022, winning 46 and losing 21. He kicked off his season as the World No. 23 and finished as the 9th-ranked player in the ATP rankings. The American won three singles titles this year — the Indian Wells Masters, the ATP 250 Rothesay International in Eastbourne, and the ATP 500 Japan Open in Tokyo.

Speaking at a press conference at the ATP Finals, Fritz stated that despite struggling with injuries, he managed to deliver results this year.

"I think that I've proved that I belong in the top 10. I just need to keep working hard," said Fritz. "I think there's a lot of positives to take out of this year. I finished where I did and I missed pretty much the whole clay court season, didn't have any training going into the beginning of the hard court season. I was dealing with injuries, and I still was able to produce a really solid year. I'm just excited to kind of get back to work, keep improving, next year look to cement my spot even more."