Taylor Fritz exclusive on catching Carlos Alcaraz: "I will be able to do it"

Taylor Fritz may have acquired a taste - the taste for beating Carlos Alcaraz.

There aren’t too many players above fifth-ranked Fritz in the men’s tennis world rankings. Just Alcaraz, who is currently No. 1, Jannik Sinner, Alexander Zverev and Novak Djokovic, the all-time record-holder with 24 Grand Slam titles.

At the Laver Cup this past weekend in San Francisco, Fritz defeated two of them: Alcaraz and Zverev. The win to note, of course, is the one against Alcaraz.

Fritz beat Alcaraz for the first time in his fourth career meeting versus the Spaniard, who, as fate would have it, is also competing at this week’s Japan Open in Tokyo.

Alcaraz does not lose much. With three months left in 2025, he’s already won seven titles and is four wins shy of matching the career-high 65 he set in 2023.

Fritz isn't getting ahead of himself. The 6-3, 6-2 victory over Alcaraz at the Laver Cup was not at a Grand Slam. But for him, it meant a lot.

“I think for a while now I felt capable of it if the right things click and I play well,” Fritz said during a conversation with Olympics.com at the Japan Open, ahead of a come-from-behind, 4-6, 6-3, 7-6(3) first-round win over Canada’s Gabriel Diallo on Thursday (25 September).

“But I think just even last week, being able to beat Carlos and Sasha in back-to-back matches, obviously it's not at a Grand Slam but I think that just does a lot for my belief that I can also do it in a big tournament.

“I’m someone who always said that if I feel like once I do something once, for me just mentally it feels much easier to repeat it and do it again.

“And yes, it's not like we just played in the finals of a Masters or a Slam but even so, I felt a lot of nerves and pressure throughout the match and to me it felt like a big match.

“I think doing that, it does give me the belief that at another time, I will be able to do it.”

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Taylor Fritz: 'I had a very solid rebound'

Fritz opened 2025 as the World No. 4 after reaching his first Grand Slam final at the US Open last year, when he was swept by Sinner in straight sets.

The North American said he was in tip-top form at the start of the season and went into the Australian Open feeling good.

Unfortunately, the 27-year-old ran into an equally sharp Gael Monfils, who eliminated him in the third round. It was his fastest exit at a Slam since 2023.

Following Melbourne, Fritz suffered an unspecified injury, which he ended up nursing until the grass season began, a decision he laments with hindsight.

“I started out playing good tennis but I got injured after the Australian Open,” Fritz recalled. “And I think that was a big issue for me because I tried to play through it for a while and then ultimately, I kind of accepted that it's not good for me to play through it.

“I was developing bad habits to try to not have pain, and then when I took time off and came back, I felt like my level was pretty bad at the end of a clay season.

“But I think since the grass season started to now, I'm really happy with everything. I had a very solid rebound, and I think that overall, I'm in a pretty good position for how bad I thought I was at the beginning of the year.

“I think now I'm pretty happy with it.”

Fritz will be looking to finish strong as the year winds down to the ATP Finals in Turin, where he was also denied by Sinner in last year’s final.

At some point, he will have to get past Sinner and Alcaraz to hit his target of winning a Grand Slam championship and becoming No. 1 in the world rankings.

Last week, 27-year-old Fritz showed he can beat half of the Big Two. Now the question is whether he can do it under the high-powered microscope of a major.

“For me the first goal and the main goal is to win a Grand Slam and I think if I am able to win a Grand Slam, then that's maybe something I can think about afterwards, is trying to become the World No. 1,” the California native said.

“If you just go down the rankings, the next people are myself and Sasha. I see Novak’s there but we don't know how much longer Novak's going to really play over the next five years.

“If it's not going to be just Carlos and Sinner then yeah, there's only right now a handful of people that you might be able to contest. And I'm working really hard to be one of them.”

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