It’s Time For America’s No. 1 Seeded Tennis Player, Taylor Fritz, To Shine

Photo Credit: Nick Garcia

BY LAURA SCHREFFLER

PHOTOGRAPHY NICK GARCIA

STYLING ELYSZE HELD

GROOMING CESAR FERRETTE

SHOT ON LOCATION AT ARLO WYNWOOD, MIAMI

Photo Credit: Nick Garcia

Taylor Fritz remembers one of the greatest days of his life vividly.

The date was Sunday, March 20. The setting: the wind-battered BNP Paribas Open near California’s Palm Desert. The then-24-year-old tennis pro had tweaked his ankle the day before, and blue tape peeked out from beneath his sports sock that, when paired with his cherry-colored top and white shorts, screamed “America.” And it was fitting, too, because Fritz, thanks to his dominant serve (that has reached up to 149 mph), powerful ground strokes, and penetrating forehand, was about to live the American dream. That day, he went on to win the biggest tennis match of his life — his first ATP Masters 1000 title — a 6-3, 7-6 upset against none other than tennis legend Rafael Nadal.

In photos, the young player — at press time, America’s No. 1 ranked in the ATP top 10, with five singles career titles under his belt — is beaming from ear to ear, holding his trophy with an expression of pure joy on his handsome face. But before he accepted that award (and the accompanying $1,262,220 reward), he literally fell to his knees on the hard court. There were tears. (There were also celebratory In-N-Out burgers and Animal Style fries, but that’s pretty standard for Fritz post-match, a tradition he’s upheld in his home state since winning his first lower-level tournament in 2015, two years after he officially turned pro). 

 “Immediately when I won the match, I fell to the ground,” he recalls. “I couldn’t believe it. I kept saying, ‘There’s no way this is real, there’s no way.’ And then, walking back on to the court after I won, I was definitely very emotional. It was the biggest title I had ever won by far, and then also, it was a really special tournament for me because I grew up going to it as a kid, as a spectator, when I was young. My dad, who has been my coach for my entire life, told me that I would win it one day. And then, I was able to not only play but to beat Rafa, someone who I grew up watching dominate tennis. So, I think all of those things together combined to make an experience that I will literally never, never forget, like, ever.”

For Fritz, this particular match was the realization of a dream so massive that he almost didn’t dare to believe that it could come true. “If you had told me that this would one day happen when I was a kid, I wouldn’t have believed it — this was always such a big goal for me,” he admits during our Zoom chat in May.

It was also a culmination of everything he had been working for, all the sacrifices he made — like a quote-unquote “normal” high school experience such as prom, hanging out with friends at the mall doing absolutely nothing but loitering (when that still seemed fun), and senior year shenanigans — in pursuit of a singular goal: being one of the very best tennis players in history, up there with greats like Nadal, Novak Djokovic, Andre Agassi, Pete Sampras, and Roger Federer (whom he refers to as “Mr. Perfect”).

But when you want something as badly as Fritz wants to be included in this group of GOATs, playing against them as equals and hanging out with them as peers, it doesn’t really feel like he gave up much. He knows what his life could have been like had he been an average teen, but he wouldn’t trade it for anything — especially not now, when he’s beginning to enjoy serious career success.

“I worked really hard for a really long time for this. And, for a really long time, I really have given up a normal life — though I probably held on to [normalcy] longer than most other players did; I stayed in high school until partway through my sophomore year. But from then on, I made the decision that I was going to dedicate everything I had to tennis. Now I’m traveling 10 months out of the year. I don’t get to be home much; I don’t get to hang out with friends a lot. My friends that I’m the closest with are other players traveling with me on the tour, the other American guys [like Reilly Opelka, Tommy Paul, and Frances Tiafoe]. When I’m home, I’m training — spending half of my day in the gym or on the court, trying to practice, trying to get better — because if you don’t, if you actually take time off when you’re not in a tournament, you won’t be able to compete on the same level. So, even when you’re off, you’re not really off, and that’s kind of just how it is. It’s tough, but I’ve just accepted it.”

Photo Credit: Nick Garcia

Even so, surely it must be hard. Surely, there must have been a twinge of regret, of curiosity somewhere about the road less traveled. But in actuality … not really. “That’s almost the bare minimum of what you need to do if you want to be at the top, so it’s easy for me to have that mentality in order to get it done,” he maintains.

Fritz is staunch about his pursuit of glory and is single-minded about the steps he must take to get there. “I’m not satisfied with just being the best American player. I want to go even further. I want to be one of the best players in the world,” he declares, noting, “I’m going to be doing this until I retire, so I’m basically giving 15 prime years of my life to doing this. But when you have those moments of winning a big match, winning a big title, it makes it worth it.”

He was always going to sacrifice his life to something sports related anyway, so why not tennis? Honestly, it’s the sport he was best at, and he also liked the idea of following in his parents’ footsteps: both his mother, Kathy May, and father, Guy Fritz, played professionally; she was a former top 10 player, and he, a touring pro and, later, the 2016 U.S. Olympic Development Coach of the Year.

“I feel like I always had the idea that it was cool to do what your parents did [whereupon I have to interject, said literally no kid ever — no disrespect, Fritz fam], so I played tennis. And I liked tennis, but to be honest, I went through periods when I was younger where I hated it and didn’t want to play because I enjoyed other sports much more. Plus, there was never pressure from my parents to play, so I just tried everything until I hit an age [15] where I had to make a decision and pick one.”

When Fritz says he tried everything, he means everything. He excelled at baseball, lacrosse, football, basketball, and soccer while attending Torrey Pines High School in San Diego, located near his hometown of Rancho Santa Fe, California. He was a constant flurry of motion, seemingly playing two sports at once each season — kind of like a modern-day athletic Hermione Granger, using a time turner to magically do it all. But I digress.

He continues, “I guess growing up, I didn’t have my mind set on being a professional tennis player — I just had my mind set on being a professional athlete; I didn’t care what sport it was. When it came down to it, I was the best at tennis of all the sports I played, so I decided to go all in.”

Photo Credit: Nick Garcia

It’s important to note that Fritz had another reason for playing every sport under the sun: it was an easy way to air his endlessly competitive drive … in a healthy, constructive way, of course. Ahem.

“I am extremely competitive, so with everything I’m doing, I feel like I need to be competing. Even now, resting after a long day of training, I’m immediately trying to play video games as some type of ranking system, where I can play against other people,” he admits.

Fascinating. I want to know what happens if he loses. And while I don’t personally regret asking this question, I would feel bad should anyone best Taylor Fritz — for his sake more than theirs.

“If I’ve put a lot of time into something where I think I should be good, I definitely get very frustrated. If it’s something I haven’t put that much time or care into and don’t really expect to be that good, I take the loss better. But if I worked really hard and I still get beaten, it’s not good.”

And this applies to all games. Even video games, though Fritz truly doesn’t have much time to play them these days. “There’s some games I’ve put enough time into where it can be very rage-inducing when I lose, because, you know, I’m super competitive, but it’s not even close to the way I’d feel if I lost a tennis match,” he admits.

That said, when he was recovering from injuries in 2017 and couldn’t actually get on the court to practice, he played a lot of FIFA, turning the full, fierce focus of his competitive drive to a virtual game instead of a real one. “I really got into it; I feel like I was almost playing it close to a professional level of FIFA, so when I would lose [that game], I would lose my mind,” he divulges.

I don’t think he’s joking.

Photo Credit: Nick Garcia

DESPITE HAVING NEXT TO NO FREE TIME, Taylor Fritz is on a rare and unexpected vacation, strolling the cobblestoned streets of Rome with social media influencer Morgan Riddle, his girlfriend of three years, when I finally chat with him.

And while he’s having a great time living “la dolce vita,” arguably, there’s no place like home when it comes to having a real vacation, especially for a guy who’s on the road 10 months out of 12 — he prefers to be horizontal on his couch at home in Miami, Florida, watching Netflix and eating copious amounts of food.

“Free time is a real luxury,” he acknowledges. “Sometimes, I do just want to do nothing because I’m always training, so it’s not like I get a week off and want to go somewhere on summer vacation. Sometimes I just want to be home. Doing nothing isn’t something that I get to do,” he admits.

But when he does have time to himself? Boy, oh boy, you better believe he takes full advantage of it. For Fritz, basic moments are precious. A good night’s sleep, an early rise, a breakfast burrito, video games, golf, friends, drinks, and relaxation. For him, there’s pleasure in those simple, stolen moments. “When I feel like it’s appropriate to take time off and I don’t need to be training, I do try to make the most of it, for sure, because it doesn’t happen much. I feel like you almost need those little resets where you can relax or have fun. It’s easier for me to push myself to work harder and be even more motivated after getting that time to relax.”

Those stolen moments seem to be few and far between, but it isn’t anything new. As he’s noted before, it’s a burden that he’s borne since age 15, when he started training in earnest, and that magnified when he became a husband at 18 and a father at 19. Fritz married fellow tennis player Raquel Pedraza in 2017 and divorced two years later; in the interim, they had now-6-year-old son, Jordan. Needless to say, having a family before you can legally have a beer seems like the fastest way to age a guy.

He says as much now. “I feel like a lot has happened in my life for how young I am, so I guess it’s normal that I feel older than I am. I don’t want to say that I’m wise beyond my years, but obviously, I have a lot of experiences that others my age might not have.”

Photo Credit: Nick Garcia

He may not feel right using the saying, but he does sound wise beyond his years discussing where he’s come from and where he’s going, what steps he needs to take both on court and off to achieve his goals. It’s funny, because in our conversation, Fritz is an interesting mix of chatty and reticent, pragmatic and effusive, adult and also very much a kid. (It might be because he’s actually shy — something he disclosed earlier in our discussion after confessing that he was too shy to ask his hero, Roger Federer, for any kind of expert advice when they actually connected, though he does allow that, once he gets to know and befriend someone, they’ll be able to see how very un-shy he can be.) But more so, I think these dichotomous traits reveal themselves because Taylor Fritz had to grow up very fast in fundamental ways that others did not, with his personal life splashed all over the media, to boot.

The responsibility of becoming a parent at such a young age fast-tracked his adulthood in a variety of ways that he can only be grateful for. “I think [having a kid] taught me a lot of lessons about time management. I have to juggle all these different things. It also taught me to not care so much about other people’s opinions. There was a lot of talk when I was younger. I was always very concerned about how my career would be affected, the things people were saying, and things of that nature.”

But in the years that have passed, he’s used his innate resilience and powerful sense of self to drown out the negative talk. “I learned one, not to care, and two, just to handle my business and be as productive as possible. I mean, I do have more things to manage now, and I definitely had to grow up fast, but it was always going to be like that anyway. I was traveling the world when I was 17 to play tennis, so regardless of my own personal things, you have to grow up pretty fast in this sport anyway,” he says logically.

Taylor Fritz is a man with a plan, a realistic dreamer, a brunette with ambitions. Which is why, as a backup or a side hustle, he’s planning on turning to modeling — an idea born by virtue of the TikTokkers and influencers he’s met through his girlfriend, as well as his own burgeoning love of fashion (he’s an ambassador of Rolex and Nike, with a penchant for fashion brands such as Burberry, Amiri, and Dior). With his lanky, 6’5” frame and that face, methinks he’ll crush it.
“I think it’s important to show other things outside of tennis for me personally, to get my name out there. I’m into fashion already, so modeling is something that I think I could branch out and do,” he says.

But there’s a bigger-picture reason, too. Fritz knows that people need to know him, need to root for him. And in getting the word out about himself, in selling himself, he’s selling the game of tennis, engaging a new, Gen Z audience. And in today’s social media-obsessed culture, his aim is spot on. In fact, his plan is almost entrepreneurial, which would make sense — he seems to be following in the footsteps of his great-great-grandfather, David May, founder of The May Department Stores Company, which merged with Macy’s.

He says, “Just by virtue of being American, it’s really easy for me to see — traveling the world — [tennis] is much more popular in other countries. As a player, I would love for tennis to grow in the States, and I’ve always hoped that [I] and the other American guys could be a part of making that happen. And for that to happen, I think we need a top player, a champion. We’re very spoiled in the U.S. with sports — we’re used to having the best of everything — so unless we have someone who is contending Grand Slams, winning Opens, winning the U.S. Open, I don’t think people are really going to care that much. I would love to be a part of the reason why tennis becomes more popular and why more kids pick it up. On the women’s side, Serena and Venus Williams have been carrying that for a long time, inspiring women to play tennis, and I think the next step is to have somebody on the men’s side who can inspire people to play just as much.”

And given how much Fritz thrives on competition and ambition, I have no doubt that he’ll be that change he wishes to see in the game. And at the very least, he’ll come out swinging.    

Photo Credit: Nick Garcia

TALKING TIME WITH TAYLOR FRITZ

Photo Credit: Rolex

When did your affinity with timepieces begin?

I’d say when I first turned pro. When I started getting into it, I became really interested in Rolex and mainly Rolex. I thought the [watches] were so cool [and] timeless, and then I became an ambassador [for Rolex] and got even more into it because of the partnership. Since then, I’ve just been into looking at all the new watches and admiring other people’s watches. It’s just kind of grown on me over time, I guess.

Do you wear a watch when you play?

No, it’s a bit heavy when I’m hitting the backhands and stuff, but I always walk on the court with it, and then I put it on immediately once I finish my match.

So, what is your favorite Rolex currently?

I’d say it is the same. My favorite one is the Daytona. I have a Daytona Cosmograph. It was the first one I ever got. I have a couple of others, but I feel like I am always wearing the Daytona. I feel like it is just so classic, and it is the first one I ever got when I was 18 and got my deal. So, it is still my favorite.

How have Rolex and the timepieces you wear played a role in your tennis career?

I don’t really need to say anything about Rolex — they are just the most amazing, prestigious brand in the world. I have always wanted to align myself with the best companies, and Rolex has just always been an amazing partner. I can’t thank them enough for the partnership — always having me and believing in me. I have had rough years, and they have always stayed with me and believed in me. It is just such an amazing marquee company to be associated with, so it’s always been an honor [to work with them].

How do you value your time, and what does time mean to you?

It is the most important thing to me, considering I don’t get too much of it. A lot of my time, I am working extremely hard and [often] doing things I don’t really want to do. Time is the most valuable thing. I would just love to relax and enjoy that little bit of free time I get, and because I work so hard, because there is so little of it, it is even more precious to me.