Taylor Fritz managed to get his first ever win over Carlos Alcaraz at the Laver Cup this year.
Fritz beat a frustrated Alcaraz to secure vital points for Team World and get his first win over the world number one on his fourth attempt.
Although it is often debated how important the Laver Cup is to players, Fritz ranked this win above his Indian Wells victory.
This was not the only match that the American number one won, with Fritz playing a vital role in Team World regaining the Laver Cup.
Steve Flink praises Taylor Fritz for what he did differently against Carlos Alcaraz at the Laver Cup
In their three previous meetings before their Laver Cup meeting, Fritz had only won one set against Alcaraz at Wimbledon earlier this year.
Fritz still had belief that he could beat Alcaraz, and he showed that on the Laver Cup courts in San Francisco.
When reflecting on this match on the latest episode of the ‘Court-side with Beilinson Tennis’ show, Tennis Hall of Famer journalist Steve Flink spoke about how Fritz was able to not only serve well, but also compete with Alcaraz from the back of the court.
“He [Fritz] also commented afterwards, they asked him to compare it to beating Rafa [Nadal] in the final of Indian Wells a couple of years back,” said Flink. “He was more satisfied with this because he thought he took hold of the match more, and I can see why he feels that way, because both he and Rafa were playing injured that day, both were struggling with things and it wasn’t the highest quality, it was just a great competitive effort.
“This time the standard was…because it wasn’t just the serve where he didn’t get broken, where he escaped from 15-40 in that first game and was untouchable on serve the rest of the way, but he was more than holding his own from the back court with Carlos.
“He was getting that first strike in, he had Carlos on his heels, that’s not easy to do. It’s the first time I’ve ever seen him do that to Carlos for an extended period of two sets like that in any of their matches.”
Flink later added, “He was hitting through the court beautifully and getting on top of points early. And also what impresses me about that is you know when guys are trying to be ultra aggressive they can start missing a bit more. He wasn’t. He was making about half the number, I think he made 10 unforced errors in the two sets, about half the number of Carlos and that’s hard to do when you’re being that aggressive, and that’s where I tip my hat to him.”
Steve Flink reveals what he does not think the ATP Tour should do regarding the Laver Cup
While Flink was big on Fritz’s tennis against Alcaraz, he is not in agreement on everything about the Laver Cup.
The Laver Cup was co-founded by Roger Federer in 2017, but the event was an officially sanctioned ATP Tour event until two years later.
Despite the scoring system being slightly different, with third sets being played as a 10-point tie-break instead, the ATP counts Laver Cup matches towards head-to-heads and retrospectively added any matches prior to 2019 as well.
While Flink does not feel too bothered about Fritz’s win over Alcaraz counting due to the convincing scoreline, he admitted that he was not a fan of it on the whole.
“I don’t think they should, but they are and so for that reason the win will have greater…Fritz is aware of that too and he’s going to know that when the ATP puts out their head-to-head’s,” said Flink. “I feel better about it when it’s a clearcut win like that, a straightforward 3 and 2, than I do about a 6-3 4-6 10-6 super tie-break to decide it.
“You know, this one was at least was a very clear-cut victory for him, so he can feel good about that. But yeah, I’m in accord with you. If it had been left to me, I would say no, don’t. They’re trying, they’re fighting, but can you really put them alongside matches that are played, you know, full matches where a third sets played out?”
In Andre Agassi’s first year as Laver Cup captain, Team World have regained the title and won the event for just the third time.
Next year, the Laver Cup competition will return to Europe at The O2 Arena in London, where Federer retired from tennis in 2022.
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