Taylor Fritz endured a second straight five-set slog at Wimbledon on Wednesday, but could not quite conjure up the same winning result.
After all, coming from two sets down to beat Alexander Zverev likely took a lot out of him, and Lorenzo Musetti’s all-action and magical brand of tennis just proved too much for the American on the day of their quarter-final.
However, there were certainly opportunities for the 26-year-old to take that would have handed him the impetus.
He just suffered from a few holes in his game that damaged him on the day.
Nick Kyrgios and Tim Henman agree on Taylor Fritz’s weakness
Speaking live on BBC Sport immediately after his loss to Musetti, Nick Kyrgios and Tim Henman pulled no punches in their assessment of Taylor Fritz.
After all, he went into the clash as the heavy favourite, fresh from dumping out the world number five across a five-set epic.
It was perhaps this shift in the narrative that heaped far more pressure on the American, but Kyrgios in particular sought to outline one weakness which was exploited that he has to work on.
The Australian claimed: ‘Me and Tim [Henman] said there and we realised that one area of Fritz’s game, where he can improve, is at the net. He’s not comfortable coming forward yet and I think Musetti realised that. In the early stages of the second set he came back and realised, he was just slicing and as you said played a bit of cat and mouse, brings him into the net with some drop shots and he executed it perfectly.
‘I thought Fritz had a pretty good serving day as well so there’s a lot for Fritz to go back to the drawing board with and there’s so much room for improvement. It’s positive as well.’
Taylor Fritz will be back stronger
Although he failed to break that Grand Slam semi-final hoodoo, once again not reaching that stage, this was still a hugely impressive run from Fritz, who is making marked improvements with each new tournament.
After all, his win over Zverev marked his first-ever over a top-five opponent at a major.
Having won two titles and reached another final in 2024, this has been one of his strongest years on tour, and it still has plenty of life left too.
The Olympics and the US Open await alongside plenty of other ATP events, and with this advice alongside the information his coaches will have gathered, there’s plenty to work on.
But given how his endurance and serving have come along, there is reason for confidence that this will be just the start of his steady rise back up the rankings.
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