Taylor Fritz may have acquired a taste – the taste for beating Carlos Alcaraz.
There aren’t too many players above fifth-ranked Fritz in the men’s tennis world rankings. Just Alcaraz, who is currently No. 1, Jannik Sinner, Alexander Zverev and Novak Djokovic, the all-time record-holder with 24 Grand Slam titles.
At the Laver Cup this past weekend in San Francisco, Fritz defeated two of them: Alcaraz and Zverev. The win to note, of course, is the one against Alcaraz.
Fritz beat Alcaraz for the first time in his fourth career meeting versus the Spaniard, who, as fate would have it, is also competing at this week’s Japan Open in Tokyo.
Alcaraz does not lose much. With three months left in 2025, he’s already won seven titles and is now three wins shy of matching the career-high 65 he set in 2023.
Fritz isn’t getting ahead of himself. The 6-3, 6-2 victory over Alcaraz at the Laver Cup was not at a Grand Slam. But for him, it meant a lot.
“I think for a while now I felt capable of it if the right things click and I play well,” Fritz said during a conversation with Olympics.com at Tokyo’s Ariake Colosseum, ahead of a come-from-behind, 4-6, 6-3, 7-6(3) first-round win over Canada’s Gabriel Diallo on Thursday (25 September).
“But I think just even last week, being able to beat Carlos and Sasha in back-to-back matches, obviously it’s not at a Grand Slam but I think that just does a lot for my belief that I can also do it in a big tournament.
“I’m someone who always said that if I feel like once I do something once, for me just mentally it feels much easier to repeat it and do it again.
“And yes, it’s not like we just played in the finals of a Masters or a Slam but even so, I felt a lot of nerves and pressure throughout the match and to me it felt like a big match.
“I think doing that, it does give me the belief that at another time, I will be able to do it.”
