US tennis has enjoyed a successful season at junior level this year thanks to American teenagers Taylor Fritz, Tommy Paul and Reilly Opelka who clinched the last three Grand Slam Junior titles.
Paul won the French Open Junior title beating Taylor Fritz. Opelka clinched the Wimbledon Junior tournament. Fritz grabbed the headlines last September when he won the US Open Junior tournament.
These teenagers have raised the hopes of US fans that the long Grand Slam drought could come to an end in the near future. In 2003 Andy Roddick beat Carlos Ferrero in three sets to win the only Grand Slam title of his career. Roddick has been the last US player to win a Grand Slam title.
Taylor Fritz, a native of Rancho Santa Fe (California), started playing at the age of 2 following in the footsteps of his parents who were professional tennis. Hi mother Kathy May reached the quarter finals at three Grand Slam tournaments in the late 70s and was a former top 10 tennis player. His father Guy coaches other players like Coco Vandeweghe. He played in different sports like American Football, which he considers as his first love. He is a keen fan of American Football NFL team San Diego Chargers and of football team Manchester United.
“I was playing a lot of other sports and didn’t play a lot of tennis really”, said Taylor Fritz in an interview to Sports Illustrated. “When I got to Florida to train, I realized how much better everyone else was. I really wasn’t as good as I thought I was and it took that to make me drop everything and start training really hard”, said Fritz.
Since winning the 2015 US Junior title last September, 18-year-old Fritz has claimed two Challenger titles and has risen to World Number 207 in the ATP Ranking.
Fritz beat Pablo Carreno Busta 6-1 6-4 on the grass of Nottingham in the first ATP Tour levl match of his career. He became the second 17-year-old to win back-to-back Challenger tournaments in Sacramento and Fairfield in consecutive weeks. He has joined an elite group of eight players who won more than one Challenger before turning 18 following in the footsteps of Rafa Nadal, Novak Djokovic, Juan Martin Del Potro and Tomas Berdych. He moved up 462 spots in the ranking to become the second highest ranked 17-year-old in the world.
“The US Open Junior title was the perfect ending to my junior career. It provided me with a lot of closure. There was nothing more I wanted to accomplish with the juniors so I felt right about ending it there and moving on to the pros. It’s going to take staying very humble and not buying into all the hype that surrounds all the American Juniors right now. There is still plenty of work to be done on and off the court”, said Fritz.
Paul and Opelka spent their high school years travelling the country playing tournaments or training at the USTA facilities in Boca Raton and have developed a friendly relationship.
“We lived together at the USTA dormitories for three years and then we are on the road together playing the same tournaments, probably 30 weeks out of the year. I am with Tommy and my coach Diego more than I am with my family, said 18-year-old Opelka.
“Me and Reilly hang out pretty much every day that we practice together. Taylor, whenever he comes down, we love hanging out with him. He is fun but he is not really in Boca as much. We are all pretty close”, said Paul.