New York, Sep 9 (IANS): After his quest to become the first American man to capture his home Grand Slam since Andy Roddick did in 2003, ended with a loss to world no. 1 Jannik Sinner at the US Open final, Taylor Fritz said he "let a lot of people down," who were waiting to witness the history at the Flushing Meadows.
The world No. 12 American was the first man representing America to contest a major final since Roger Federer defeated Roddick at Wimbledon in 2009. He fell to World No. 1 Sinner 6-3, 6-4, 7-5 after a strong run to his first major final.
"I feel like American fans have been wanting a men's champion for a long time, and I don't know, I'm pretty upset with how I played. I feel like I almost let a lot of people down," Fritz said in a post-match press conference.
The 26-year-old American outdueled No. 8 Casper Ruud and No. 4 Alexander Zverev on his way to the final. He was happy with his best run at a major but also showed his disappointment and bittersweet feelings after the loss.
"There's obviously a lot of positives, and when I get some time to cool down, then I'll be happy about the fact that I made it to the finals and stuff like that. But right now I'm pretty disappointed in how a lot of things on the court (went), how I played, how I hit certain shots. It sucks. I'm pretty upset with how I played. I feel like I almost let a lot of people down," said Fritz.
Sinner was 54-5 on the season coming into the match and had claimed five titles alone in 2024, including the Australian Open. Fritz noted that his opponent had grown leaps and bounds as a player since the first time they met at Indian Wells in 2021—when the American scored a routine 6-4, 6-3 win over the Italian.
"I'd say he's definitely improved a little bit since I beat him in straight sets at Indian Wells in 2021,” Fritz said with a laugh. "If I want to (look back) to 2021 Indian Wells, the serve and the movement are massive improvements now. (Back then) I could find myself in a lot of return games just off of his first serve.
"I felt like I could get myself in points off of his first serve every time. Then it was much easier to hurt him from the ground, as well. And he's much faster now, a lot better out of the corners," he said.
Fritz further noted seven matches he played in this major will only help his game moving forward—and just possibly propel him toward ending that burdensome drought at the majors in the future.
"I think the biggest thing is [that] I played solid this week, but I played very within myself. I don't think at any point I was, like, ‘Wow, I'm playing incredible’ or ‘I'm playing out of my mind.’ I think that's just extremely reassuring to me that I was able to get to this point, just playing solid tennis. I know that there's still a lot of room for improvement," said Fritz.
“And something I've said throughout my entire career, whether it's when I won my first ATP point or I won my first Challenger or I made my first Round of 16 or whatever it is, I've always said once I do something once, I just feel a lot more confident in being able to do it again. That's something that's always stuck with me.
"Sometimes it's taken me some time to get to a certain achievement, but I've always felt like once I've done something, I gain a lot of confidence that I can do it again. I feel like it's repeatable," he signed off.