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Taylor Fritz Refuses To Let Fatherhood Spoil His Tennis Dream

Published

7 years ago

11/03/2017

Taylor Fritz (zimbio.com)

Taylor Fritz is a rare breed in the world of tennis. By the age of 20 he has already broken the top-100 and claimed a junior grand slam title at the 2015 US Open. The achievements of the American is particularly impressive considering he is also a husband and a father.

Welcoming the birth of his first child in January, Fritz is now tasked with juggling fatherhood and his aspirations in tennis at such a young age. It is a daunting prospect for an athlete at any age, but the former world No.1 junior isn’t planning on changing his training regime anytime soon.

“Nothing’s really changed at all for me. My wife’s been handling everything.” Said Fritz. “She handles all of the off-court stuff so I can be on court more than I was before.”
“I wake up at 7:00. I get breakfast. I drive to Carson where I train. I practice about two-and-a-half hours, get lunch, practice another two hours, go to the gym. Some days I go to physical therapy to get some work done, and then I’ll be home at, like, 9:00 at night and I go to sleep.”

Fritz’s determination to continue applying himself fully to his tennis career has been one supported by his wife, Raquel Pedraza, who he married in July 2016. Proudly stating that his wife has ‘stepped up’ since the birth of their child, Fritz’s circumstances are somewhat different to other rising stars in the men’s game. It is also understandable to expect the American to be spending less time on the court than his rivals, although he has fiercely denied this.

“I feel like everything is the way it was before with all the other guys that are my age.” The world No.136 admitted. ”People can think I’m spending less time on the tennis court and less time in the gym, and that’s perfectly fine, because I’m sure that will come back to get them if they’re underestimating the training and the work that I’m putting in.”

Troubled by a knee injury during the second half of 2016, the American has made some encouraging progress on the tour this season. His stand out run of the year so far occurred at the Dallas Challenger, where he lost to Ryan Harrison in the final.

Playing amongst the world’s elite at this week’s BNP Paribas Open in Indian Wells, Fritz has got off to a winning start with a straight sets triumph over Benoit Paire. His reward is a second round showdown with former US Open champion Marin Cilic.

“We do have similar-type games, we’re both pretty serve-dependent. I’d say we are both pretty solid off of both sides and play aggressive baseline tennis.” Fritz said about playing Cilic.
So I will be focusing on the key parts of my game which is the serve and just staying aggressive, attacking, but not giving him too many free points.”

Fritz will play Cilic on Sunday. He is yet to progress beyond the second round at any Masters 1000 event.

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Carlos Alcaraz beats Yannick Hanfmann on his debut at the China Open

Published

8 hours ago

29/09/2023

sampaolo

This year’s Wimbledon champion Carlos Alcaraz beat Yannick Hanfmann 6-4 6-3 in 1 hour and 37 minutes on his debut at the China Open in Beijing three weeks after reaching the semifinal at the US Open.

Alcaraz has improved his win-loss record to 59-7, leading the ATP Tour. The Spanish player leads the ATP Tour with 8 titles and 5 finals.

Hanfmann saved eight of the eleven break points and broke twice in the first set.

Alcaraz earned an early break in the third game to take a 2-1 lead, but Hanfmann broke straight back in the fourth game to draw level to 2-2. Alcaraz converted his fourth break point in the fifth game to take a 3-2 lead. Hanfmann pulled back on serve in the eighth game to draw level to 4-4. Alcaraz earned his third break with a forehand at 4-4 to seal the first set.

Alcaraz broke twice in the third and ninth games to close out the second set 6-3. The two-time Grand Slam champion did not face a break point in the second set.

Alcaraz converted five of the sixteen break points he faced.

Alcaraz set up a second round match against Lorenzo Musetti, who beat Karen Khachanov 6-3 1-6 6-2. Khachanov won at the Zhuhai Open last week beating Yoshihito Nishioka in the final.

“Hopefully I have a lot of years to come here to China. Creating my chapter here in China would be great for me. To finally be able to come here to China and show my tennis in front of the Chinese people is something that I wanted a long time ago and I am really happy to do it, hopefully the first of many here”, said Alcaraz.

Musetti converted his second break point in the second game to take a 3-0 lead. Khachanov broke back in the fifth game to draw level to 3-3. Musetti broke for the second time in the eighth game to seal the first set 6-3.

Khachanov broke twice in the second and sixth games to close out the second set 6-1.

Musetti broke Khachanov twice in the sixth and eighth games to seal the third set 6-2.

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Jessica Pegula and Maria Sakkari advance to the semifinal in Tokyo

Published

12 hours ago

29/09/2023

sampaolo

Number 2 seed Jessica Pegula cruised past Daria Kasatkina 6-1 6-0 in just 59 minutes at the Toray Pan Pacific Open in Tokyo to reach her seventh semifinal of the 2023 season.

Kasatkina earned an early break in the opening game of the match, but Pegula reeled off 12 consecutive games. The US player hit 25 winners and broke six times. She saved three break points as she served out the first set. Kasatkina was not able to convert eight game points across her first two service games.

Pegula has scored her second win in as many matches against Kasatkina after beating her Russian opponent 7-5 6-3 in the first round in Rome 2021.

Pegula has improved to 10-9 against top 20 rivals in 2023.

Pegula set up a semifinal match against Maria Sakkari, who beat Caroline Garcia 6-2 6-2 in the quarter final. Sakkari claimed her second win in a week over her French rival equalling her career-best streak of seven consecutive match wins. Last week Sakkari beat Garcia 6-3 6-0 in the semifinal of the Guadalajara Open.

Sakkari hit 15 winners to eight unforced errors and saved all six break points.

The US player will meet her Greek rival for the ninth time in her career and for the third time this season. Sakkari leads 5-3 in her head-to-head matches against Pegula. They are 1-1 in their 2023 clashes. Pegula took the win 6-2 4-6 6-1 in the semifinal in Doha, but Sakkari turned the tables by winning the Washington semifinal 6-3 4-6 6-2.

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Asian Games Champion Qinwen Zheng Reveals Shock Departure Of Coach Fissette

Published

14 hours ago

29/09/2023

Adam Addicott

Image via https://twitter.com/WTA_insider

China’s Qinwen Zheng says she feels ‘hurt’ by the decision of her former coach to end their collaboration in order to work with another player.

The US Open quarter-finalist had been working with Belgium’s Wim Fissette in recent weeks following the departure of Pere Riba who is now the coach of Coco Gauff. Fissette has a wealth of experience in women’s tennis after working with the likes of Kim Clijsters and Naomi Osaka. However, Zheng says she is now looking for a new mentor.

“I understand his decision, but my family and I feel hurt. Right now I don’t want to talk about this person (Fissette),’ journalist Bendou Zhang quoted her as saying.

Fissette is yet to comment on his departure. He had previously coached former world No.1 Osaka between 2019-2022 and during this period she won two of her four Grand Slam titles. The American-based Japanese player is on maternity leave from the sport and gave birth to her first child in July.

20-year-old Zheng is currently ranked 23rd in the world and won her maiden WTA title in Palermo earlier this year. She is the youngest player from her country to have reached the quarter-finals of a Grand Slam in the Open Era following her run at Flushing Medows. This year she has beaten top 10 players Ons Jabeur and Daria Kasatkina.

Zheng’s latest career milestone is winning gold at the Asian Games on Friday. in the final, she defeated Zhu Lin 6-2, 6-4, in the blistering Hangzhou heat.

“The feeling was incredible,” Zheng said. “I’m really happy about that. That was not an easy match today and also yesterday (in semifinal against Alex Eala). All of them are good fighters.”

It is not clear who Zheng will be working with during the Asian swing.