Taylor Fritz told the issue that’s stopping him from winning major tournaments after he loses to Jannik Sinner at the ATP Finals

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Taylor Fritz suffered his third consecutive loss to Jannik Sinner in their latest ATP Finals clash on Tuesday.

Top-seeded Italian Jannik Sinner moved one step closer to the ATP Tour Finals semi-finals with a 6-4, 6-4 victory over American Taylor Fritz.

The world number one overcame a determined Fritz to secure his second win in front of an enthusiastic, 12,000 strong home crowd in Turin.

In a rematch of their U.S. Open final clash in September, Sinner struck 22 winners to Fritz’s 19 in a hard-fought contest.

With clinical precision, the Italian cruelly broke Fritz at 5-4 in both sets to seal the win and leave the American helpless once again.

What Taylor Fritz has the ‘inability’ to do that is ‘costing’ him in big ATP matches

The post-match discourse was broadly one of pure amazement at the way Sinner managed to control a sensational match.

While a straight-sets win doesn’t tell the full story, the victory spoke of Sinner’s unrivalled dominance of late as he marched to his 27th win in his last 28 matches.

Rennae Stubbs watched on and was left frustrated by what Fritz didn’t choose to do – something she insists is just not part of his game.

The seven-time major doubles champion picked apart his lack of presence at the net, suggesting it’s a hole in his game thats consistently proving detrimental.

She wrote on Threads: “Taylor Fritz inability to come forward and volley is costing him dealing against players like Sinner.”

The 53-year-old insisted the American has the potential to win a Grand Slam, but without addressing this part of his game, it may never happen.

“I really believe Taylor is good enough to win a major IF he improves that area of his game. Sinner is SOOOO much better at the net, as is Carlos. This to me is the only thing stopping him getting those wins.”

READ MORE: Laura Robson says what Taylor Fritz should find ‘scary’ after his loss to Jannik Sinner at the ATP Finals

Where really was the match lost for Taylor Fritz?

With Fritz’s enormous serve, a smart net game is something that makes sense.

While the American’s current style is currently more centred round ripping groundstrokes from the back of the court, a more proactive drive to get to the net feels a sensible suggestion.

However, one of the key moments of the match came at 30-30 in the middle of the second set when a great approach shot saw the Italian hit a breathtaking backhand down-the-line winner on the slide – there was nothing Fritz could do here no matter how good or bad his volleys were.

Regardless, the statistics show that the pair were evenly matched in all but one category – second serve points won.

While Sinner and Fritz won 77% and 79% of points behind their first serve, the Italian won 16/27 on his second serve (59%), while Fritz slumped to just 10/26 (38%).

While volleying may well be an area Fritz will look to bolster, the strength of the Sinner return was what really made the difference.