#NextGenATP now? Denis Shapovalov, Stefanos Tsitsipas, Frances Tiafoe and Taylor Fritz all meet the #NextGenATP age qualification by being born in 1997 or later, and they're all looking like they'll qualify for the 2018 Next Gen ATP Finals, to be held 6-10 November in Milan. The four, in that order, top the ATP Race To Milan, which will determine seven of the eight players who compete in Milan. For the second consecutive year, the eighth player will be determined by an all-Italian qualifying tournament. [ALSO LIKE] But just because they're #NextGenATP doesn't mean they haven't been thriving on the ATP World Tour now. The quartet all have posted career-best results during this clay-court swing, and all four look ready to...
#NextGenATP American Taylor Fritz had never made an ATP World Tour semi-final on clay before this week. In fact, he had only played three clay-court matches combined on the ATP World Tour and the ATP Challenger Tour prior to his Houston debut. But judging by his play Friday, you wouldn’t know it. The 20-year-old battled back from a 4-2 deficit in the deciding set to oust 2015 winner Jack Sock 6-3, 3-6, 6-4 at the Fayez Sarofim & Co. U.S. Men’s Clay Court Championship and move into the semi-finals. "I felt like it could really go either way. I just had to get back in it," Fritz said. "I just stayed with it and was able to come up [good]...
This time, Taylor Fritz feels as if it can last. Two years ago, Fritz, then 18, became “The Next Big Thing” on the ATP World Tour. He reached the Memphis Open final, becoming the youngest American to make a tour-level title match since 17-year-old Michael Chang won 1989 Wembley. Months after, Fritz made the quarter-finals of the Abierto Mexicano Telcel presentado por HSBC in Acapulco, an ATP World Tour 500 event. “The Next Big Thing” seemed like he was here to stay. But he couldn't produce it week after week, and his ATP Ranking, which had risen to No. 53 in August 2016, fell to No. 135 last June. This year, Fritz is on the rise again, but he's confident...
Taylor Fritz discusses an open draw at the Fayez Sarofim & Co. U.S. Men's Clay Court Championship and his first impressions of the tournament ahead of his debut. Photo Credit: Aaron M. Sprecher/ROCC.
