Wimbledon refuses to let Taylor Fritz play a normal match

USA Today

15 hours ago

No one would suggest Wimbledon has been anything close to normal this year. Not with so may top names crashing out in the first two rounds. But those upsets were at least more typical David vs. Goliath stories.
When it comes to American Taylor Fritz, the No. 5 player in the world seems to be battling the tournament itself more than his opponents. Simply put: the 27-year-old has yet to get through a match without some sort of momentum-altering delay. This has less to do with his play and way more to do with when he's playing.
In a first round matchup on Monday with Giovanni Mpetshi Perricard — who set a new tournament record for the fastest serve at 153 mph — Fritz was reeling after dropping the first two sets in tiebreakers before battling back to force a decisive fifth set. But the primetime showdown at Centre Court was halted just as Fritz turned the momentum due to the All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club's curfew. Despite the fact it was 10:15 p.m. local, officials were worried the match wouldn't conclude before the 11 p.m. cutoff. Fritz wanted to keep playing. Mpetshi Perricard did not because he "wasn't in the best shape, to be honest" and that was that.
Fritz was forced to finish off his win on Tuesday, finally putting Mpetshi Perricard away 6-7 (6), 6-7 (8), 6-4, 7-6 (6), 6-4.
"I wasn't bothered or, I guess, upset at him for not wanting to play. I totally get it,' Fritz said after. 'But I still felt confident. It would have been easy for me to get frustrated about not being able to play last night. To be honest, I felt confident going into the fifth set — (whether) it was last night or today. I had to tell myself he's going to be sleeping on what just happened in the fourth set. I'm going to come back and keep doing what I was doing.'
The question soon became how long Fritz could maintain both that mindset and his stamina, overall. By finishing on Tuesday, Fritz had no true off day before Wednesday's second-round matchup against Canada's Gabriel Diallo. Once again, the match would be played at Centre Court. Once again, in the evening. And, once again, it featured an inevitable delay amid a five-setter.
After three sets, the match was paused to close the stadium roof and finish up under the lights. While Fritz was in control and up 3-6, 6-3, 7-6, Diallo was pushing him to the limit — and the Canadian's play seemingly improved once the roof closed.
Diallo's serve got faster after the 20-minute delay, he was able to break Fritz's serve and the match seemed to be up for grabs in the fourth set. Fritz was tumbling all across the court trying to save points, eventually receiving a small bit of medical attention for a cut on his arm after one notable dive.
Then, finally, victory — 3-6, 6-3, 7-6, 4-6, 6-3
'Really happy to get through that match," Fritz said on the court afterwards, and you feel the relief in his voice. "I felt like he was playing incredible. It was one of those matches where I'm not doing much wrong, I'm playing great tennis, and he's still just going to be too tough for me."
Part of that has to be the fact Fritz has now played 109 total games through two matches across three consecutive games. Per ESPN, Fritz is the seventh top-five seed in the Open era to reach the third round with back-to-back five-set wins to start a major, and third to do so at Wimbledon. No one has won a men's single Grand Slam event after opening with back-to-back five-setters since Boris Becker's 1996 Australian Open victory.
Fortunately, as the field grows smaller the schedule should be more predictable. Fritz's next match is once again scheduled for Centre Court on Friday against Alejandro Davidovich Fokina, but they'll be playing in the early afternoon with two matches scheduled after.
With four first-round losses by top-10 seeds in the men's draw, Fritz has a clear path to reach the quarterfinal at Wimbledon for the third time in his career and the second consecutive fortnight. But through two rounds he's already been forced to play longer and with more intensity than much of the field — which is to say little of the fact Fritz played four straight days last week during his victory at the Eastbourne Open.
"[Thursday] is going to be a very, a very light hit. I think I've played plenty of tennis," Fritz said Wednesday night. "I'm very due a nice, relaxing day."
We'll see if the tournament allows him to relax as much as his body probably needs.