It has been 12 years now since an American took home a Grand Slam title. In 2003, Andre Agassi won the Australian Open and then Andy Roddick won the US Open later in the year. That has been it for over a decade. At the Juniors level this season, several Americans have shown that there could soon be some hope to change that. The latest American hopeful is Taylor Fritz.
Fritz Finally Breaks Through
On Sunday, most of the tennis world was focused on Arthur Ashe Stadium for the men's singles title. While Novak Djokovic and Roger Federer battled, it was two American teens against each other for the Juniors title. That match pitted Americans Taylor Fritz against Tommy Paul. Amid all the hype of Djokovic-Federer, many missed what has become a top-tier juniors rivalry. Earlier this year, it was Paul who clipped Fritz to win the French Open Juniors Title 7-6 (4), 2-6, 6-2. Last month, Fritz was denied a spot at the Wimbledon Juniors Final by fellow American Reilly Opelka who won the title. Yesterday, it was Fritz's chance to finally break through. It was his time as he came out on top of Paul with a 6-2, 6-7 (4), 6-2 win.
Mental Toughness From Fritz
For Fritz, he was able to use his bigger game to defeat Paul on the quicker surface after suffering two defeats to Paul on clay. Fritz showed a stout serve, whipping in eleven aces and winning 83 percent of his first serve points in the match. He also showed some mental toughness after blowing a match point in the second set when he led 5-3 with Paul serving. A series of baseline rallies seemed to wear down Fritz some as Paul held his serve to 5-4 and then broke Fritz for the first time. Paul would go on to win the second set tie break and put some doubt into Fritz's mind.
Fritz said Paul's speed and quickness in rallies were unnerving late in the second set. At one point, he told reporters that he wondered if he could win saying, "Wow, if he (Paul) can keep doing this, I just don't see any chance of me winning, because I just couldn't put a ball away.” Fritz easily could have gone down for the count after being broken early in the third set, but he began playing more aggressively and was able to break Paul three times to earn the win.
It appears to be the perfect ending to Fritz's juniors career. He turned pro last month at the age of 17 and has already won his first ATP level match. That was a straight sets win over Pablo Carreno Busta at the Aegon Open in Nottingham. Yesterday's title match was his final go at a Juniors Slam event. Fritz said this was all he dreamed it could be, saying “I wanted to win a junior Slam so bad. I can't believe I actually got the perfect ending.”
Fritz is the first American to win the US Open Juniors title since Jack Sock won in 2010. He is just the second American to win it in the past decade. Ryan Sweeting was the other back in 2005.