Jessica Pegula’s coach reveals what he would tell Taylor Fritz after his win against Carlos Alcaraz at the Laver Cup

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Taylor Fritz made a significant breakthrough at the Laver Cup after beating Carlos Alcaraz for the first time.

Fritz stunned Alcaraz at the Laver Cup, beating the Spaniard for the first time after losing all three of their previous meetings.

This was all part of an impressive weekend for the American number one, with Fritz also continuing his recent dominance over Alexander Zverev to confirm Team World’s victory at the Laver Cup.

There has been a change of attitude towards Fritz following his victory over Alcaraz in particular, and now Jessica Pegula’s coach has commented on the 2024 US Open finalist.

Mark Knowles explains what he would tell Taylor Fritz after his win over Carlos Alcaraz

Mark Knowles has coached Pegula since March 2024, and helped her reach the US Open final like Fritz last year.

When speaking on the latest episode of the Inside-In podcast, Knowles was asked about Fritz’s breakthrough victory over Alcaraz and spoke about what he thought this could mean.

In his response, Knowles put himself in the position of Fritz’s coaches, Paul Annacone and Michael Russell, and revealed that he would tell the world number five to extract certain areas of his game for future meetings against the likes of Alcaraz, Jannik Sinner and Novak Djokovic, who he has previously struggled against.

“Taylor Fritz to me, the match against Carlos. It will be interesting how him and his coaching team, Paul Annacone and Michael Russell, what they extract from that,” said Knowles.

“We have all seen that Taylor is one of the best players in the world. He has been right there knocking on the doorstep, but we have all felt that he needed a bit more transition game and more confidence moving forward against the big guys.

“He has got a good record against Zverev, but his record against Alcaraz, Sinner and Djokovic is sub-par and those are generally the people you are going to need to beat to win a major.

“I hope for Taylor that he will look back on that match, and I thought he defended out of the corners as well as I have seen him defend which allowed him to be offensive and then finish at the net. He volleyed extremely well. So I know if I was part of the coaching team that’s something I would extract and really focus on for the rest of the year.

“Grand Slam play has finished, he has got himself a spot at the World Tour finals, he has a couple of tournaments in the Fall and that’s where I would take that play from that match specifically against Alcaraz and say how can we incorporate that this Fall going into 2026, so that we can win a major next year.”

When could Taylor Fritz play Carlos Alcaraz again?

Fritz has continued his winning ways at the Japan Open, coming from a set down to beat up-and-coming teenager Gabriel Diallo.

The 27-year-old is the second seed in Tokyo, where he is a former champion, with only Alcaraz ranked higher than him.

Alcaraz suffered an injury scare in his opener at the Japan Open, but managed to overcome it to keep the chances of a final against Fritz alive.

Fritz has no seeded players standing in his way of reaching the semifinals, with his second round match coming against Nuno Borges.

This is a second meeting for Fritz against Borges, with the former winning their only previous encounter.