Those who know American tennis star Taylor Fritz best say his secret weapon is his belief. We’re not referring to your usual pro athlete confidence or cockiness. Fritz isn’t one for smack talk. Or much talk at all. It’s all in his facial expressions, his walk, his aura. Fritz often walks onto a court, no matter who he’s about to play, looking like he has already won. He almost seems to be lacking whatever brain synapses create self-doubt. When he loses, he appears more confused than upset. “Taylor is delusionally optimistic,” his doubles teammate and childhood friend Reilly Opelka has said about him. “Like, totally delusionally optimistic.” Fritz himself once tried to explain it: “[I’m optimistic] to a point where things that shouldn’t be possible, I think I can make happen. I guess I’m playing tricks in my mind.”
Case in point: When Fritz walked onto the Stadium 1 court at Indian Wells Tennis Garden for the 2022 men’s final against Rafael Nadal, there was quite a bit of wind. The windy season in the California desert has always coincided with tennis season, as nearly half a million fans pile into the second largest outdoor tennis venue in the world every March for the annual BNP Paribas Open. While wind can be a defining feature of this particular stop on the tour (like rain delays at Wimbledon), that afternoon faced gusts of 30 to 40 miles per hour. Cameras sitting higher up on center court captured the oppressive jet-engine roar that batters sensitive microphones. Even down on the court, with 360-degree protection of the 16,100-seat arena, players’ shirts fluttered rapidly.
So, there was wind and there was pressure. Fritz was 25 at the time. He grew up playing, training, and pranking friends at the Tennis Garden. His father, Guy Fritz — who also played professionally and coached Taylor until he was about 18 years old — had family in Greater Palm Springs, and they often drove in from their home in San Diego. The Indian Wells venue opened in March 2000, when Taylor was 2 years old. “He liked trying to [aim for] the ball machine because it made a nice sound,” Guy remembers. “This was before he could even say the word machine. ‘Hit the ’chine, hit the ’chine,’ he’d say.”
In 2022, it would be fair to say Fritz was playing on home court, and the crowd was behind him. Indian Wells shaped Taylor Fritz, and Fritz was now shaping U.S. Tennis. Whether he liked it or not, Fritz belonged to what some pundits were calling a new golden era of American men’s tennis, giving fans a collective, if somewhat irrational, hope that this generation could end two decades of European dominance.
A Netflix camera crew followed Fritz that year for the docuseries Break Point, which featured Fritz — often with his girlfriend, Instagram influencer and model, Morgan Riddle — as the informal American torch bearer. Netflix likely made this decision at least in part for reasons that have nothing to do with tennis. At 6-foot-5, with smoldering Italian-model eyes, and olive skin, Fritz is the sort of athlete that major lifestyle and fashion brands fall over themselves to sign.
It didn’t seem to bother Netflix, or the crowd, that Fritz was only ranked 23rd at the time. Or, that standing between Fritz and the trophy was legendary Spanish champion Rafael Nadal, who was ranked fifth. Nadal, then 36, was on a 20-game winning streak and seemed unstoppable. Broadly speaking, any player from this new generation of hopefuls, from any country, would have to break through Nadal, Novak Djokovic, and Roger Federer to stake their claim. (Mercifully, Federer retired later that year.) “Coming into Indian Wells, Taylor was not one of the heavy favorites to win,” admits his coach, Michael Russell.
As if the hill didn’t already look too steep to climb, earlier in the day at Indian Wells, Fritz came down on his heel awkwardly during practice. He described it as the worst pain he’s felt in his career, and even he doubted he could carry on. A flurry of texts bounced between coaches and players: “Taylor is out!” But Fritz decided to press forward. Oh, and then there was that wind. It wasn’t exactly the final of Taylor’s boyhood dreams.
However, as Nadal hit his first serve to open the match, the wind, injuries, Netflix producers, rankings, and state of American men’s tennis didn’t exist. The very first volley was like a wake-up call for Nadal. Fritz gave up the point but did so diving toward the net for an impossible save. He believed. Fritz won the first set. Two hours and 20 minutes later, shortly after hitting what was basically a blind backhand to who knows where, Fritz won the final set on a poor return from Nadal. Taylor Fritz had won his first ATP Masters 1000 title, and he’d done it at Indian Wells — suddenly, he was 15 again. He immediately fell to the court, lying on his back, hands over his face, crying. Fritz became the first American to win the BNP Paribas Open since Andre Agassi in 2001. And he walked off the court $1.2 million richer for it.
In his victory speech, after a nod to childhood hero Nadal, he thanked his family, his girlfriend, his physio, and his coach. “I love coming here,” he said, fighting back tears. “It’s one of those crazy childhood dreams that you think won’t happen.”
Only one word captures Fritz’s reaction in that moment, as he looked at the crowd: disbelief.
Taylor was the sixth most popular baby name in the United States on Oct. 28, 1997, the day Kathy May and Guy Fritz welcomed their son into the world. The couple didn’t have all that much in common except for one thing that would seal their son’s destiny. They were both artists on the tennis court.
May, a Los Angeles native, was a household name among tennis fans in the 1970s. By age 22, she had reached the quarter finals in three separate Grand Slam tournaments (the French Open twice and the U.S. Open) and was ranked 10th in the world. May had been married and divorced twice by the time she met her third husband, Taylor’s father, Guy Fritz. Guy was the brother of six-time Canadian tennis champion Harry Fritz, and he competed on the pro circuit himself. But Guy made his name as a coach, notably helping a young Andre Agassi and being voted coach of the year in 2015 for his work with the U.S. Junior Olympic tennis team. Guy had lived and worked in Palm Springs before he and Kathy were married, as a tennis pro at Oasis Water Park Villas and Cathedral Canyon Country Club. The couple settled in Rancho Santa Fe. Naturally, their son was learning how to play tennis as soon as he could walk. “Taylor was playing all the time,” Guy says. “He’d play in the morning, have lunch and take a nap, then he’d be right back out.”
Guy did his best to sit back and let his son discover his love of tennis on his own terms. And the proximity to the desert was by design. “It doesn’t rain,” says Guy, whose 97-year-old mother still lives in Palm Springs. “I started Taylor playing tennis young, with the goal of developing him into a pro. So, any time it was raining in San Diego, I’m looking at the weather forecast at Indian Wells, and I’d say, ‘Let’s go.’ He developed close friendships with some of the other players — I think he cared more about seeing his friends than playing tennis. They’d play pingpong, catch lizards, all the things 8-year-old kids do. But I remember telling him, ‘You know, you’re gonna win this tournament someday.’ ”
May recalls, “The first tournament that he ever played in, he was 8 years old, and we were just hoping he could keep score. I was shocked at how focused he was. I mean, for an 8-year-old — I thought, Wow, he’s got amazing concentration. He’s so strong mentally. I’m really impressed with his work ethic and what he’s done. His motivation and determination have been incredible.”
By high school, Fritz excelled in the classroom and on whatever court or field he stepped onto. His relationship with a tennis racket, however, was otherworldly. Fritz has said he started defeating his mom around age 14. “In his sophomore year, he came to me,” Guy recalls. “He says, ‘Dad, I don’t think I have much chance of being a pro at anything except for tennis.”
“My dad asked me if this is what I wanted, and I said it was. So he pushed me very hard,” Fritz says. Since it is nigh on impossible to let your child be a teenager and turn them into a pro athlete, Fritz’s relationship with his father became strained. To make matters worse, Guy and Kathy separated when Fritz was about 18, and he rebelled by choosing the camaraderie and independence of spending time with his U.S. Tennis family over his actual family. Under the guidance of United States Tennis Association coaches, Taylor had an impressive run of junior tournaments that culminated in two junior Grand Slam quarter finals, reaching the final at the junior French Open. At 18, Taylor turned pro and played in his first senior ITF tournament.
Around this time, Fritz began a serious relationship with Raquel Pedraza. He shocked family and friends when he told them he and Raquel had decided to get married, and then again, when he told them he was about to become a father.
Meanwhile, Fritz qualified for his first major, the Australian Open. He was not only becoming wealthy playing tennis — he was becoming well known.
It’s often said that Taylor Fritz has boyish good looks, but his looks may be the least boyish thing about him. Fritz has a quality beyond his physical appearance that makes it easy to picture him as a kid, practicing with his dad on the very courts where he won that final in 2022. Even today, at 27, Fritz is a gaming fanatic, spending hours immersed in the world of Fortnite. He remains close friends with two other American tennis stars, Reilly Opelka and Tommy Paul, who he spent most of his childhood with training and competing. (Opelka was best man at his wedding.) In group interviews, they always seem to circle back to messy dorms, practical jokes, and playful one-upmanship.
“I love coming here,” Fritz said at Indian Wells after winning the BNP Paribas Open in 2022 against Rafael Nadal. “It’s one of those crazy childhood dreams that you think won’t happen.”
But never has Fritz looked so young than in the days after welcoming his own son, Jordan, into the world, in 2017. Fritz was 19 years old. The way he appears with his son bears a striking similarity to the way he appears when he wins a match. It looks like joy. He made both winning and teenage fatherhood look easy.
Maybe Opelka was right about Fritz’s delusional optimism.
It was hard on Fritz’s parents to watch him divide his attention between tennis and a new family so early in a promising career. “He struggled for a couple years there to adjust to the whole thing,” Guy shares.
Taylor and Raquel separated in 2019, when Jordan was 2. Raquel moved to Claremont, and Fritz’s tennis career soon had him circling the globe, from tournament to tournament and, eventually, major to major. This period may be the most defining of Taylor’s life.
“Taylor is a very good father,” Guy says. “When I watch him with his son, the relationship they have, even though they don’t see each other very much, it’s so heartwarming.”
“It’s all about managing my time, the best I can, to where I can FaceTime, call, just talk to him as much as possible,” Fritz shares. “I also make sure those times when I am at home, we spend as much time as possible together.”
Circumstances that would break just about anyone — to be pulled in two directions emotionally, to be faced with an impossible choice or to exist in a perennial state of give and take — did not break Taylor Fritz. By all accounts, all balls remain in the air.
After Fritz became a father, no one would have predicted his career would explode the way it did. Fritz qualified for Grand Slam events, though he was often knocked out early. Then, in 2018, he reached the fourth round at Indian Wells and the third round of the U.S. Open. He finished that season ranked 49th.
Fritz continued making impressive runs, deeper and deeper into major tournaments, with heavy hitters like Nadal and Djokovic knocking him out. At Indian Wells in 2021, Fritz battled through three of the world’s best — Matteo Berrettini, Jannik Sinner, and Alexander Zverev — to reach the semifinals, where he was defeated by Nikoloz Basilashvili. He closed the year ranked world No. 23 and, more significantly, No. 1 among U.S. men. The following year, he defeated
Rafa at the BNP — his first victory over one of the Big Three. A few months later, he reached the quarterfinals of Wimbledon to face Nadal again, but lost in five sets. Fritz finished the year ranked ninth in the world.
In 2024, Fritz made the semifinals of the U.S. Open. He also became the first American since Agassi in 2001 to reach the fourth round at each of the four Grand Slam events in a single year. He finished the year ranked fourth in the world — the first American to do so since James Blake in 2006. “To be No. 4 in the world, that’s huge,” says Fritz’s mother, Kathy. “The American players are all pretty even on any given day, but Taylor’s been the most consistent, winning the big matches.” Russell describes him as “the quarterback” of the talented field. His coaching certainly helps, leading the ATP to vote Russell as the 2024 Coach of the Year.
Tennis is a strange sport in that greatness is measured over such a long time that individual wins — even a Grand Slam final — are quickly forgotten. Federer, Nadal, and Djokovic have won 66 Grand Slam titles between them; that stat encapsulates their collective greatness. Fritz himself once said: “When you run into Nadal, Federer, Djokovic, or Murray, you’re in trouble. We’ve just been waiting for them to move out of the way.”
When Fritz arrived in Melbourne for the Australian Open in January, there was wind again — a lot of wind. Only, this time, the winds the world was watching were the ferocious Santa Anas of Southern California that, even before the open had started, pushed a wall of fire through the Pacific Palisades and Altadena in Los Angeles and gutted two entire communities. “It’s really crazy — it’s scary,” Fritz said from Australia. “I’m going back to a completely different city.”
As Fritz took to the court for his first-round match on Jan. 14 — against fellow American Jensen Brooksby — the fire was only 20 percent contained, having made its way along Pacific Coast Highway, devouring homes that had perched over the water for decades. As Los Angeles burned, Fritz handily defeated Brooksby. The following day, Fritz beat Cristian Garin in the second round, dispatching him in the first set in only 28 minutes, keeping American tennis fans’ delusional optimism alive. At the net for his post-match interview, he was asked about the fires.
“It’s insane what happened,” Fritz said to the crowd. “Southern California’s my home, and L.A. was my home for a very long time. I have friends impacted. Some family had to evacuate. The house my brothers grew up in burned down. I’m going to be donating my first-round prize money [about $80,000] to L.A. wildfire relief funds. It’s the least I can do.”
Technically, Fritz lives in Miami right now, but that doesn’t mean it’s home. “The training is good in Miami, and it’s much easier to get to Europe,” he explains. “I go back and forth all the time because of Jordan. Whenever I do finish playing, there’s almost 100 percent [certainty that] I’ll be going back to L.A. That’s where I feel at home.”
In his third-round match at Australia, Fritz faced 38-year-old Frenchman Gaël Monfils and was stunned by his much older opponent in four sets. Fritz’s tournament was over. It was considered an upset, but, nevertheless, Fritz doesn’t skip a beat with his trademark self-belief. “I played well,” he said during a post-match press conference. “Outside of a couple bad sets, there wasn’t much I did wrong. I’m playing very good tennis, so I won’t let this one get to me.”
“Taylor is able to focus and compartmentalize better than anyone I’ve ever met,” Russell observes. “Once he steps on the court, he’s 100 percent focused on tennis. Nothing distracts him.”
Two months — and two tournaments — later, Fritz has remained somewhat static in terms of momentum, with unremarkable performances at the Dallas and Delray Beach Opens — the sort of performances that have a way of haunting most players. But, once again, March is tennis season in the desert, and Fritz is headed back to Indian Wells for the 2025 BNP Paribas Open. He still considers his win there in 2022 as his best tennis memory. “It will always be a special tournament,” he says. “It always has been and always will be. Even before I won it. It’s the one that just feels like home for me.”
When Fritz plays on home turf, his true greatness is on full display. Surrounded by friends and family, often toggling between the pressures of fatherhood and his position as the next great hope in American tennis, he centers himself in the present moment, and the world around him fades away. “Taylor is able to focus and compartmentalize better than anyone I’ve ever met,” Russell observes. “Once he steps on the court, he’s 100 percent focused on tennis. Nothing distracts him.”
“Taylor is a very good kid,” Guy says, reflecting on his son’s life and career. “He’s got a great heart. He’s tough mentally, but also very fair — he’s just a good person. He’s going to be in politics or something — he’ll do something way beyond tennis. I’m really proud of the person he turned out to be.”
The thing is, Taylor Fritz is already doing something way beyond tennis — he’s raising a son. Jordan is 8 now and understands the game himself. He may even be the source of Fritz’s delusional optimism. “Jordan isn’t very easily impressed,” Fritz says. “I’ve told him what I’m ranked. I think he’s only really going to think it’s cool if I’m No. 1.”
