Taylor Fritz says why he was getting ‘so worried’ during his match with Carlos Alcaraz despite winning

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Taylor Fritz produced one of the best displays of his career as he defeated Carlos Alcaraz on day two of the Laver Cup.

Fritz is currently lining out for Team World at the 2025 Laver Cup, who are led by Andre Agassi in San Francisco.

And Alcaraz is representing Team Europe, who under the captaincy of Yannick Noah trail their rivals 3-9 going into day three.

Fritz played a key role in a superb day for Team World, defeating Alcaraz 6-3, 6-2 to claim two points for his side.

Just a day before, the American lost to Alcaraz and Jakub Mensik in doubles alongside compatriot Alex Michelsen.

Why Taylor Fritz was ‘so worried’ against Carlos Alcaraz despite winning their match

But he recovered to overcome US Open champion Alcaraz after one hour and 11 minutes, exacting revenge on the Spaniard for their Wimbledon semifinal earlier this year.

Revealing his initial game plan going into the match, Fritz told Tennis Channel: “So because of the nature of the court and the conditions here, it’s so much slower.

“To be honest, I would have gone in saying it’s probably one of the worst conditions for me to play Carlos. Because it’s so much easier for him to hurt me than it is for me to hurt him.

READ MORE: Laver Cup 2025: Players, rules, how to watch and everything you need to know

“The court’s very slow, I felt like I was going to have to really just crush the ball if I was going to hurt him and really pick and choose the right ones.

“But I knew I needed to hit my average ground stroke speed a lot higher with the slowness of the court. I feel like if I played my normal speed, it would just give him too much time to dictate. So I kind of went out with the idea if I leak some extra mistakes, it is what it is.

“I’m not going to be able to beat him unless I really step on my ground strokes and raise the speed of my rally ball and just pull the trigger when it’s the right one.”

And when asked if their recent Wimbledon clash contributed to the win, he replied: “Yeah, I think playing that match at Wimbledon helped the confidence a lot, because I played well, I played well in that match, but I felt like there’s still room to do more.

“I was right there, close to forcing a fifth set in that match. But I knew today was going to be so different, because like I said the conditions… Wimbledon, it’s fast enough to where he can hurt me, but I can still hurt him.

“I was so worried in this match that I got… there was a couple of points early on, I think like 15-30 in the first game, first point of the second game, where I’m pulling strong forehand inside ins aggressively, and he’s basically hitting a winner off that shot.

“So you know that is the challenge on this court, is some of those shots where I try to be aggressive, he ends up just hitting a winner off of it.”

What is the head-to-head record between Taylor Fritz and Carlos Alcaraz?

Fritz had his Wimbledon dreams dashed by Alcaraz in July, when the latter beat the former in thrilling circumstances.

The duo produced an exciting battle on Centre Court at the All England Club before the Spaniard prevailed 6-4, 5-7, 6-3, 7-6(8-6).

But rather than letting that loss haunt him, the American used it to his advantage, and in doing so claimed his first ATP win over Alcaraz.

Their head-to-head record now reads 3-1 in favour of the Spanish star, but Fritz can take plenty of confidence knowing that he can indeed overcome Alcaraz.

And that may indeed also give him hope for his battles with Jannik Sinner, who holds a 4-1 head-to-head record over the American.

Fritz has, however, struggled most against 24-time Grand Slam champion Novak Djokovic, who has remarkably won all 11 of their meetings on the ATP Tour.