Taylor Fritz finally has a trophy to show for a season full of near-misses, and he made sure to have some fun with the 19-year-old who nearly spoiled it. The American beat rising Spaniard Rafael Jodar 7-6(2), 6-4 in the Mubadala DC Open final, needing to survive match points of his own in the first-set tiebreak before Jodar could convert his. Fritz closed out the second set on his fifth match point to finally break a run of three straight final losses this season.

“It was a really tough final and you are having an amazing season and at 19, on your first season on Tour, what you and your dad are doing is just incredible,” Fritz said to Jodar, as per Tennis TV on X. “You are so young and are only going to get so much better.”

“I want to say thanks to my team, Mike, Wolf, Lily, thank you guys just for everything,” Fritz added, turning to his own box. “I’ve given this speech a lot of times recently but not as the winner, so it’s really nice to actually mean it a little bit more this time. Thank you, thank you so much. Thank you so much for everything.”

It’s Fritz’s 11th ATP Tour title and his first above the ATP 250 level since he won Tokyo back in 2022, after a trying stretch of runner-up finishes this season against fellow Americans, twice to Ben Shelton at Dallas and Stuttgart, and once to Frances Tiafoe at Halle. He also became just the second American man in 18 years to win the Washington title, joining Sebastian Korda, who won it in 2024.

He was challenged at every turn to get there. Fritz opened with a 6-3, 6-4 win over Zizou Bergs, his 250th career tour-level hard-court win, followed it with an equally clean 6-3, 6-4 win over Kamil Majchrzak without facing a single break point, and then survived a genuine scare in the quarterfinals against fellow American Alex Michelsen, saving a match point and overcoming a late knee injury concern to win 6-1, 3-6, 7-6(6). He beat compatriot Brandon Nakashima 6-3, 3-6, 6-3 in the semifinals before the rain-delayed final against Jodar, his second win over the Spaniard this year after also beating him in straight sets earlier in the season.

Jodar’s own run to the final was its own story, a breakthrough week that saw the 19-year-old, ranked No. 24, knock out eighth seed Arthur Fils, former US Open champion Kei Nishikori, fourth seed Lorenzo Musetti, and Alejandro Tabilo in a three-set semifinal. The result vaults him to a career-high No. 15, while Fritz rises to world No. 9 and reclaims his spot as the top-ranked American man.

The victory is especially sweet for Fritz given the injury battles that have defined his season.

Taylor Fritz caps off with a title run to overcome his injury battles approaching the US Open

Knee tendinitis first appeared as a minor problem for Fritz at last year’s Tokyo tournament before flaring badly enough to jeopardize his opening match of 2026 at the United Cup. He was also seen speaking with the tournament director about the issue. At the time, Fritz admitted he had spent nearly the entire off-season trying to rehab the injury without success, and that the road ahead would be a genuine challenge for both his health and his match reps.

Despite the pain, he made the Australian Open fourth round and the Dallas final. But the inflammation eventually caught up with him, forcing an extended layoff after a fourth-round exit at the Miami Open. He missed four straight clay tournaments before finally getting match practice at the Geneva Open ahead of the French Open, only to lose in the first round of both.

His form turned around significantly after that, with runner-up finishes in Stuttgart and Halle building real momentum toward Wimbledon, before a straight-sets quarterfinal loss to eventual runner-up Alexander Zverev. This was a surprising result given their history on grass.

There was off-court turbulence too. Fritz ended his six-year relationship with influencer Morgan Riddle earlier this year, adding a personal dimension to what’s been a rocky twelve months.

Against that backdrop, the Washington trophy means more than a typical title. Fritz now heads to Montreal as the seventh seed for the first National Bank Open of the year, and for the first time in months, his body finally seems to be cooperating right as the North American hard-court swing gets underway.