Taylor Fritz may be ruing missed opportunities that he could not take advantage of in his quarterfinal defeat to Novak Djokovic.
Fritz was beaten by an impressive Djokovic performance, losing 6-3 7-5 3-6 6-4, in a match that lasted nearly three and a half hours.
This has continued the really poor record Fritz has against Djokovic, which is among the five worst ever.
Although Fritz has continued his winless run against Djokovic, he was not short of opportunities throughout the match.
Taylor Fritz reflects on missed break point opportunities against Novak Djokovic
During the match, Fritz had 13 break point opportunities against Djokovic, but only took two of them.
This includes Fritz losing the first 10 consecutive break points in the match, with six of those in the first set.
When reflecting on those missed opportunities, Fritz suggested that the break point statistic only tells half of the story and claimed he made errors on four of those break points.
“To be honest the fact I was 0-10 almost sounds better for me than it really was because that is not counting how many times I had 15-30 or 0-30, 30-30,” Fritz said in his post-match press conference. “The fact I was 0-10 [on break points] is putting it nicely.
“I had so many more chances that you are not going to see on the stat line because I was in points at 0-30, 15-30, 30-30 and I was just playing these points really poorly.
“When it comes down to the break points themselves, I would say that out of the 10, I think I converted on the 11th. I would say the first 10 I would say that five or six of them he played pretty well and it’s tough for me to do too much.
“And then four of them I just played a bad point or was too conservative or just pulled the trigger on the wrong time. It was just bad decision making, because I was not playing as well as I would have wanted to. So it’s a little bit tough in those pressure situations to know what I want to do, if it’s not really working for me.”
What is next for Taylor Fritz after his US Open defeat?
Fritz reached the US Open final last year, and will now drop 900 points from his ranking and fall to at least world number five after being overtaken by Djokovic.
Despite it being a busy North American hard court swing for Fritz, he has little time to rest as he prepares for a busy few weeks coming up.
Next up for Fritz is the USA’s Davis Cup qualifier tie against Czechia, which will take place over the weekend of September 12-13 in Delray Beach.
Fritz will then remain in the States for more team competition, as he is part of Team World for the Laver Cup in San Francisco.
The American number one will then return to ATP singles competition at the Japan Open in Tokyo, where he is a former champion, before heading to the Shanghai Masters.
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