Taylor Fritz is one of the rising stars in tennis and at 22 years of age his already had an impressive career. He’s already reached heights in the sport that few American players have reached as quickly. Much of his talent no doubt comes from the fact that his parents were both professional tennis players.
Despite a challenging season in 2017 in the years since then and he has continues to rise right up until the coronavirus outbreak. Many fans are hoping to see what height his career will reach as it moves forward.
Tennis as the part of the family
Taylor Fritz has tennis in every fiber of his being and life, most likely from the moment he could walk. Both of his parents Guy Henry Fritz and Kathy May Fritz we’re professional tennis players. In fact, his mother was ranked as a top 10 player of the sport. His father Was also a highly skilled professional player and was appointed in 2016 as the US Olympic tennis development coach.
With such talented players for parents it’s little wonder that Taylor followed in their footsteps. As he is also followed in their footsteps in tennis so to in life, as he is married to woman’s tennis player Raquel Pedraza. It’ll be interesting to see if history repeats itself as the two have a son named Jordan who may grow up to have tennis as much a part of him as it is father.
Career
The best way to illustrate Taylor Fritz impressive but short professional career is to look at it before it started. Taylor Tennis career began in earnest in high school when he won the CIF singles Title for San Diego In his freshman year. The following year he switched to online high school courses so he could focus on tennis full-time In ITF Junior events.
He won his first Grade A tournament in 2014 at Osaka Mayor’s Cup. In 2015 find all five of the Junior grand slam tournaments which resulted in him being named the IDF’s junior world champion that year.
Michael Jordans career overview…
Taylor began his professional career in 2015 with a near meteoric rise through the rankings from 600 all the way to 250. He accomplished this by being the night player aged 17 to win multiple challenge titles in back-to-back weeks. 2016 saw him jump through the ranks just as the previous year. By finally in his first tournament of the year and defeating a 100 ranked player his rank jumped from 250 to 150.
Recent achievements
Later that year in his first ATP tournament he beats the second-seeded Steve Johnson (ranked 29th) who remains to this day the highest ranked player Taylor defeated. Additional firsts for Taylor that year included him being the second fastest American to reach the ATP final by doing so in his third-year. He was also awarded the ATP Star Of Tomorrow for being the youngest player at 19 years old to rank in the top 100 (he ranked 53).
In 2017 Taylor struggled several injuries which hampered him, eventually having to skip several tournaments to focus on recovery. While he was able to recover even defeating Marcos Baghdatis he was still not able to finish top100 that year. Is 2018 season saw him playing better than he ever had. In the first few months you returned to the top 100 by the middle of the season he had reached a rank of 66. Also, the season saw Taylor reaches third grand slam round tournament.
He was able to finish that year with a ranking of 47th overall. Many of these achievements could possibly be attributed to the fact that this was the season he started working with Paul Annacone. Paul has stated that Taylor has natural talent and the primary focus of their training has been to rein in Taylor’s emotions. Paul has said of Taylor’s emotions “I don’t want him to be driven blindly by it, and as long as he doesn’t … he’ll do great.”
A legend borned ?
Taylor’s 2019 seasons saw him achieve his first ATP title at the Eastbourn tournament after defeating Sam Querrey. The middle of the season saw him essentially stall in place after a series of losses though by August he ranked at the time of 25th. He then finished out the year with the rank of 32nd top world player.
The 2020 season looked great for Taylor finishing high most of his tournaments and also reaching his first ATP 500 final. Then the coronavirus swept across the world and put the tennis season on hold. Though there is still some debate on whether or not the season will continue Taylor is currently ranked the best he has been in his entire career.
His current worldwide rank is 24th out of 600. If worldwide travel resumes this year and the tennis season resumes Taylor is positioned well winning his higher in the ranks.
What Is To Come
There’s no doubt that Taylor’s abilities as a tennis player stand out even in a sport full of exceptional athletes. What allows him to stand out a little more so than most of the other tennis players is his rise through the ranks at such a young age. He is currently 22 years old and has already defeated six opponents who were ranked in the top 10 worldwide tennis players.
A noticeable pattern has appeared of him each year consistent up the ranks and make it into higher rounds of the tournaments he plays. Taylor has achieved this in a sport were five years is the average middle point of a career. Even with the having coronavirus shut down the current season there’s little doubt that he would continue to rise higher in the sport.
At this point it’s not a question of if he’ll achieve a top 10 rank but rather when? Also, what other firsts in tennis might we see him achieve, a perfect season perhaps? Regardless fans around the world are eager to see just how far Taylor Fritz will climb into the stars of tennis.
