Taylor Fritz n'a pas fait long feu à Roland-Garros. Ce lundi, au premier tour du Grand Chelem parisien, l'Allemand a été piégé par Daniel Altmaier, 7-5, 3-6, 6-3, 6-1. Le 4e joueur mondial n'avait plus été battu d'entrée à Paris depuis 2018. Sur terre battue, Fritz n'a pu gagner trois matchs cette année et n'a jamais vraiment trouvé son rythme. En conférence de presse, l'Américain a eu du mal à trouver de réelles explications à cette déroute.
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00:00BNP Paribas, partenaire des plus belles histoires de Roland Garros, aux côtés des ramasseurs de balles depuis plus de 50 ans.
00:30I have important points. I'm just playing horrendous tennis on a lot of the important points. When I'm break point down or when I've got looks on his serve, love 30, 15-30, 30-all, break point, just all the pressure important points. I don't know what's going on. I'm finding ways to just play the worst point possible.
01:00Yeah, you said the other day you were 100% physical. I didn't believe you when you said it, but I know why you said it. How did you feel out there today physically, and is there any sort of spillover when you've been struggling physically for a couple of months, maybe sometime?
01:26You know, it's really strange because I feel like since, I guess, Rome, Geneva, and here, my movement on court is really bad. I don't know what's going on.
01:36Like a lot of times when I'm sliding, I'm off balance or I'm like not timing it correctly. Like I'm going to, I don't know, it just doesn't feel, I'm getting wrong footed a lot, slipping a lot. It actually, it's funny enough, it feels like Madrid feels like the only, the only time this whole clay court season, my first one that I felt like I was actually moving well on, on, on clay.
01:56But, you know, physically, I don't, I don't, I don't really feel like, you know, that bad. I, I, I feel pretty like, you know, for how I've been most this year, I feel, I feel good.
02:05I think, um, I misjudged for sure, um, earlier in the week, the level my, my ankle was at. I rolled it, I rolled it in Geneva. I, because it felt good for the rest of the match, I, I didn't think it was that big of a deal, but, um, it, it, it doesn't feel great. But again, it's not, it's definitely not the reason why I lost today.
02:28You played so much tennis late last year, you know, making deep runs at about a lot of big tournaments and having a later finish than you would have otherwise. Um, just wondering if it's at all a blessing to have a little more rest time first half of this year. I know you want to be playing more and winning more, but if there's some sort of catch up you can do from some sort of longer term years, it was an Olympic year last year, just different things that can accumulate.
02:53Yeah. I mean, I think, I think the thing is with the being an Olympic year last year, I am excited to kind of have, have a longer U S open series and also be very prepared for, uh, the masters, which I think I, I've lost, uh, you know, I lost really early in, in both the masters per U S open series last year. So, you know, I'm excited to have a longer U S open series, you know, be prepared for Washington and all those tournaments. But
03:21uh, yeah, I mean, I didn't feel like my off season was like almost like too short or anything. You know, I showed up at the start of this year playing what I thought was, I thought I was playing really good tennis and I was
03:33super locked in, ready to go at Australian open as well. Felt, felt good. I think, you know, for me, just the, the biggest issue has just been the, the, uh, the injury that came after Australian open before Dallas. It's, you know, caused me all kinds of problems.
03:51How much do you think this is a clear issue rather than a more general issue? Do you think that ankle side, ankle issue side, do you think that stepping on grass or stepping on a, a different surface that you feel, that you feel, you know, more, it's, it's going to get a bit better?
04:13I'm hoping, I'm hoping that the, well, I mean the, the, the fact that the last three weeks, I feel like really awkward moving on the clay, which normally I don't, I don't feel, I feel very comfortable on clay. Normally I think, uh, that hopefully will go away with the surface. But, um, you know, the fact that, you know, I'm not just converting big points and not playing big points.
04:35Well, that's, you know, that's the only way to get rid of that is to just have a match where, or have a couple of matches where that just doesn't happen. And I, I play, you know, I perform well on, on some of those points. And then once, once it's gone, it's, it's gone. And I'll never, you know, I'll never think about it again, but that's, that's the thing. It's tough because it's not something you can really fix in, in practice. I felt great about my game in practice. And, and overall, I'd say, you know, I think,
05:00I don't think I'm playing bad 90% of the match by any means in any of the matches I've played, by the way, like in the match last week in Geneva, the match just now, I think for 90% of the match, I'm playing normal. Um, but it's the 10%, which, you know, ultimately decides the tennis match, the, the really big points where it actually matters. And I think that, you know, the first three sets of the match today was a pretty basic
05:30routine standard match for me. The only difference is normally I convert some chances, save some chances when I'm down break point. And now I'm up like the very least, I'm up two sets to one, but, uh, it's just, it's just not happening. It's, it's, it's just a really, uh, poor level for me on, on, you know, on the, the part, the points in the match where I need to be playing my best.
