American tennis star Taylor Fritz must see the face of Lorenzo Musetti when he goes to sleep at night.
For the past few weeks, the Italian player has had the better of Fritz and at the Olympics, things followed the same pattern as they did at Wimbledon.
The two players had a classic at SW19 last month, with Musetti coming through in five sets against one of the USA’s top stars.
This time, Fritz will have hoped things would be different at the Olympics but again the player has departed at the hands of Musetti.
After losing to him, Fritz paid tribute to his fellow professional and it would appear that he’s a big fan of the player who continues getting the best of him.
What Taylor Fritz said about Lorenzo Musetti after Olympics clash
It won’t be gold for Fritz in the men’s singles, although he does still have a chance in the doubles with Tommy Paul.
He’s also been knocked out of the mixed doubles – alongside Coco Gauff – and now all of his eggs are in one basket.
It would have been easy for Fritz to feel sick as a dog after losing to Musetti for the second time in a matter of weeks but he had some kind words for his opponent.
He told Ubi Tennis: “Recently Musetti has really improved a lot as a player. And I think in the next year or two we’ll see him push into the top 10 and find a best ranking. Today was certainly the best match I’ve ever seen him serve, he’s improving a lot.”
Fritz can come good and claim maiden major
Although the Olympics isn’t considered a major, it’s still a pretty good achievement to win a gold medal in your specialist field.
Fritz will perhaps be disappointed to lose out to Musetti once again but time is most definitely on his side.
At 26-years-old he does have the ability to get himself in the mix to win the big titles – if he believes in himself just a little bit more.
His 6-4, 7-5 defeat yesterday saw him lose pretty convincingly and perhaps he needs to go back to the drawing board ahead of the US Open.
At Wimbledon, he managed to knock out Alexander Zverev and he must take heart from wins of that nature going forward.
Fritz is the world number 12 and at some point in his career he will want to get back in the top five of the world – a position he’s held before.
With the US Open coming up, Fritz can get back on the back quickly after this loss and he will hope to reach the semi-final of a major for the very first time in New York.
Receive exclusive tennis news and updates twice a week to your mailbox
