Taylor Fritz clinched his ninth career title at the Stuttgart Open after defeating Alexander Zverev in the final.
Fritz beat Zverev in straight sets to win his first tournament of the season, defeating the world number three for the fifth time in a row.
The American has had an up-and-down year so far, crashing out in the early stages of several big tournaments before his triumph in Stuttgart.
He lost to Gael Monfils in the third round of the Australian Open and suffered a first-round exit at Roland Garros to Daniel Altmaier.
The most consistent players on tour have not only talent, but mental strength as well, which Fritz recently discussed, and explained how it holds him back on court.
Taylor Fritz explains his ‘unpopular opinion’ about mental toughness in tennis
Speaking on the Tennis Insider Club podcast, Fritz said: “This is probably an unpopular opinion, in my mind, when it comes to like dealing with pressure on the court and playing and all this stuff, I’ve always thought it’s something you either just have or you don’t have.
“And I don’t, I’ve never understood how someone can that hasn’t been in these like situations. You know, I’d be down, I would talk to someone who is an accomplished player who knows exactly the feelings that I’m talking about.
“But someone like a psychologist or something, it’s very hard for me to believe how they’re gonna tell me how to handle this situation better than someone who, you know, as someone who hasn’t been there, so, you know, I feel like they’re gonna tell me to, like, relax and breathe and, I don’t know.
“I’ve always had the belief that it’s something that you can’t really teach.
“You can maybe work on it. You can maybe work on it and get a little bit better. But in my mind, that’s also a bit of… It’s a bit of a placebo effect of where it’s, like, maybe you’ll just do better because you’ve, like, talked to someone and you think you’re gonna, you think you’ll handle the situation better.”
The story of Taylor Fritz’s inconsistent 2025 season so far
After reaching a maiden Grand Slam final appearance at the US Open last season and making a deep run at the ATP Finals, Fritz would have hoped to build upon his 2024 campaign slightly better this year.
Following his short-lived Australian Open run at the start of the season, he didn’t win more than two consecutive matches until the Miami Open.
He enjoyed a promising tournament in the second half of the ‘sunshine double’, making it to the semi-finals before bowing out to eventual champion Jakub Mensik.
After that, however, Fritz went on another stretch where he struggled to pick up victories, putting together a largely disappointing clay-swing.
The 27-year-old is back to winning ways, though, and will look to build on the momentum from Stuttgart heading into the Wimbledon championships, where he made the quarter-finals last year.
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