Carlos Alcaraz’s Close Wimbledon Call Draws Honest Taylor Fritz Admission From Insider

Taylor Fritz tasted two title triumphs (Stuttgart and Eastbourne) before taking his flight to London for the Wimbledon Championships. However, despite his impressive run, hardly anyone thought he could beat Carlos Alcaraz at the Wimbledon semifinals. Talking about his chances in that match against the defending champion, former American pro, Sam Querrey clearly said, “No chance.“ He felt Alcaraz was too good at that time. Even John Isner felt that it was “crazy” to think Fritz would win that match. Result?

Although Taylor Fritz, coming off a 9-match winning streak, failed to secure a spot in the finals, he did manage to put up a strong fight against the Spaniard, coming back to win the second set after dropping the first. The match ended at 6-4,5-7,6-3,7-6(6), and afterwards, Alcaraz admitted, “It was a really difficult match as always when I have to play against Taylor. Even tougher with the conditions, it was really hot today.” He was really happy with the way he dealt with his nerves in this epic duel and expressed his excitement to reach yet another final. Now, highlighting Taylor Fritz’s performance in this match and his overall form this season, Hall-of-Fame tennis writer Steve Flink recently shared a very interesting thought.

During a conversation with Gill Gross, Flink said he would’ve never predicted Taylor Fritz to be in the Top 5 competing hard with these superstars like Alcaraz and Sinner. He saw him somewhere around 7 or 8. “I thought it was going to be very hard for him to live up to the standards that he set last year. So, I’ve been really impressed by this recent surge, and you know he didn’t have good results earlier in the year, and he’s overcome some injuries, and for him to follow up a US Open final with a semi at Wimbledon, particularly under the circumstances that you know the grueling first two rounds were very impressive,” he said about Fritz.

He admitted that he felt it was always going to be hard for him to win against someone like Alcaraz, so he was leaning more towards a straight-set defeat for Taylor Fritz. However, Flink thought that Taylor Fritz played really well in the second and fourth sets in this match. That being said, he felt that Fritz didn’t set up to be as aggressive as he needed to be at times in this match, and perhaps this is what stopped him from forcing a fifth set against the defending champ. “Frankly, reading between the lines of Carlos’s comments, I think Carlos felt the same way. I mean, he was proud of himself for pulling it out. But some of the remarks he made led me to believe that he thought he was a bit at Taylor’s mercy at that stage, and he was just glad that he didn’t have to go five,” Flink added.

Hearing this, Gill Gross claimed that Taylor Fritz didn’t play those points badly, but he did get a little bit safe on some forehands. Speaking about this match later on in the press conference, Fritz admitted that there were a lot of things that he felt he could have done a bit better. For instance, he pointed out that he was not returning the first serve well at all. He felt he could’ve chipped a bit, but if asked to single out one thing out of these, Fritz said that he needs to get a lot better at returning more aggressively. Well, that was Fritz’s own assessment. What do the other tennis experts have to say about this match?

American tennis legends analyze Taylor Fritz’s match against Carlos Alcaraz

Although Taylor Fritz reached the final of the US Open last year, he made early exits from the AO and the French Open this season. So, it was time to prove his mettle yet again on a major stage, and guess what? He nearly came up with one of the biggest setbacks at Wimbledon. Fritz had two set points in the fourth set tie-break, but couldn’t capitalize on the chance to force a fifth set against the Spaniard. Longer matches always add a different dimension to the game, and who knows…

Talking about Fritz’s performance in this match against Carlos Alcaraz, American legend John McEnroe said, “I think he had the perfect game plan. He had to go big and take chances. He went bigger on his second serve than I have ever seen him.” He believes this is the best that he has seen of Taylor Fritz on grass without any doubt. But having said that, McEnroe added that Frtiz perhaps played “slightly safe” in the later stages of this match, and this could probably be one of the reasons behind the missed opportunity.

Even Andy Roddick showered praise on Taylor Fritz, saying, “My respect for Taylor Fritz keeps growing and growing and growing, and the base setting was pretty good.” He hailed his game and also added that he has respect for the way Taylor Fritz goes about his business, claiming him to be a real “workhorse“. Now, since Wimbledon is over and the US Open knocking at the door, do you see him making yet another long run at his Home Slam?