Taylor Fritz: Rising Star in the Tennis World

Taylor Fritz is a 26-year-old American tennis player, born in San Diego on October 28, 1997. In Rome, he reached the quarterfinals, where he faces the German Alexander Zverev. In his singles career, he has won seven ATP titles out of thirteen finals played, including the Indian Wells Masters 1000 in 2022. He is considered one of the most promising tennis players of his generation and was already among the juniors, having finished 2015 at the top of the world junior ranking after winning the US Open junior singles and reaching the final in the junior singles at Roland Garros. Taylor Fritz is currently ranked 13th in the ATP rankings, but his best ranking was the 5th position reached in February 2023. In doubles, he has played three ATP finals and has not gone beyond the 104th place in July 2021. His father, Guy Fritz, is a tennis coach. His mother, Kathy May, is a former tennis player who reached the top 10 in the WTA circuit rankings. Therefore, it was inevitable that the tennis ball bounced around the house from when Taylor was very young. He learned to play tennis at the age of two from his parents, admiring his idols Juan Martín del Potro and Pete Sampras. Before tennis, as happens to many American students, he practiced other sports. Until, after a visit to the USTA training center in Boca Raton, Florida, he noticed two peers training. They were Reilly Opelka and Tommy Paul. At that point, he decided to improve in tennis by dedicating himself exclusively to it. His debut in the ATP circuit came in 2015 in Nottingham. In 2016 he finished the season at the 76th place in the world ranking and received the ATP "Newcomer of the Year" award from his colleagues. In 2017 he beat his first Top 10, Marin Cilic, and reached the round of 32 at Indian Wells. The breakthrough came in March 2022, when he won his first Masters 1000 career tournament at Indian Wells. After the semifinal victory over world no.7 Andrey Rublev, he defeated the former number one Rafael Nadal 6-3 7-6, interrupting the Majorcan's 20-match winning streak and bringing the tournament back to the United States 21 years after Andre Agassi's victory, becoming ranked no.13. He then played his first quarterfinals in a Masters 1000 on clay at Monte Carlo. In June, he won the ATP 250 on the grass of Eastbourne by defeating Maxime Cressy in the final. For the first time, he reached the quarterfinals in a Grand Slam at Wimbledon, where he lost in the tie-break of the decisive set to Nadal, and two weeks later rose to the 12th place in the world. He defeated Rublev again at the Cincinnati Open and exited in the quarterfinals at the hands of Daniil Medvedev. After a surprising first-round elimination at the US Open, he redeemed himself in October by winning the ATP 500 in Tokyo with a victory in the final over Frances Tiafoe after two tie-breaks. With this result, he entered the top 10 for the first time, in 8th position. In February 2023, he reached his best ranking with the fifth place. In 2016, not yet nineteen, he married tennis player Raquel Pedraza (with fellow countryman Reilly Opelka, who is also his best friend, as best man), with whom he had a son, Jordan, the following year. He then divorced and in 2020 became romantically involved with influencer Morgan Riddle, who has 269,000 followers on Instagram and often enjoys sharing her life alongside the American champion.