There’s a moment in the first season of ”Break Point,” the Netflix documentary series about professional tennis, when Taylor Fritz’s coaching team is urging him not to play the final of Indian Wells in 2022.
While warming up for the biggest match of his life, Fritz had injured his ankle to the point where he came off the court unable to put any weight on it. He called it one of the worst pains he had felt. But he was going up against Rafael Nadal in the tournament he grew up attending as a kid growing up outside of San Diego, trying to win arguably the most important title outside of the Grand Slams.
No matter the consequences, there was zero chance of Fritz pulling out. He was always going to play.
And a few hours later, he won the most significant victory of his career, 6-3, 7-6.
Fritz, a 26-year-old who has been knocking on the door of stardom for several years, can often seem too cool and a little too aloof to be an elite professional athlete. He’s got that low-key, California vibe going on at all times. You’re rarely going to see an explosion of emotion out of him regardless of how well or poorly things are going.
But never forget that Fritz, deep down, has slowly but surely become a competitive monster on the ATP Tour.
And it came to fruition on the biggest stage Friday night when he came from behind to beat his good friend and fellow American Frances Tiafoe 4-6, 7-5, 4-6, 6-4, 6-1 in the U.S. Open semifinals.
With the instincts to hang on when things were going against him and the talent to finish with a flourish worthy of the moment, Fritz advances to his first Grand Slam final and will face No. 1 seed Jannik Sinner on Sunday.
It’s a moment that has been a long time coming for Fritz, who has been the best American player for the past several years and has steadily improved during his time on the ATP Tour.
And now, he’ll have a chance to end the 21-year drought of American players winning Grand Slams since Andy Roddick’s U.S. Open title in 2003.
Fritz, to be sure, is going to be an underdog against Sinner, who won his first Grand Slam title at this year’s Australian Open and has a 54-5 record this year. But his toughness and competitive fire? That’s forever off the table as a question mark for Fritz, who lost his first four Grand Slam quarterfinals before finally breaking through at this U.S. Open.
On Friday, Fritz had to go up against an opponent who was playing out of his mind. For three-plus sets, Tiafoe was so good that it didn’t seem to matter what Fritz threw at him. Even though Fritz was playing pretty well overall, this seemed like Tiafoe’s moment.
But as he broke serve to close out the fourth set and then blitzed Tiafoe to open the fifth set, Fritz answered every question about his ability to compete at the highest level. Once considered a poor mover, Fritz was running down balls from corner to corner and extending points that wouldn’t have been possible for him a couple years ago. Once considered a player who crumbled in crunch time, Fritz made just two unforced errors in the fifth set. Once considered someone who couldn’t go the distance on the biggest stage, Fritz’s fitness and endurance blew away Tiafoe, who was a shell of himself by the end of the match.
Through no fault of his own, Fritz has gotten a fraction of the hype in America that Tiafoe and several others have received. That’s no surprise. He’s the son of two former tennis pros, groomed from the beginning of his life for success in this sport. He’s not cool enough to be a cultural icon and, at least to this point, not successful enough to break through in the mainstream. In a sport with a lot of great stories and people with interesting backgrounds, Fritz is more on the vanilla end of the spectrum.
But his appearance in this U.S. Open final is the product of steady progression, personal growth and competitive toughness in the biggest moments of his career. Is that enough to capture America’s attention? We’ll see Sunday when sports fans tune in to see if one of their countrymen can win a Grand Slam title for the first time in two decades.
Regardless of that result, though, it’s time to give Fritz some credit as the best American tennis player in a generation who has now reached the sport’s ultimate stage. As career validations go, it doesn’t get much better.
Follow USA TODAY Sports columnist Dan Wolken on social media @DanWolken