He turned pro after winning the junior US Open and quickly progressed through the ranks.
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Taylor Fritz is something of a late bloomer in the game of tennis. This is despite the fact that both his father Guy Henry Fritz and mother Kathy May Fritz are former professional tennis players. But the fact that he has tennis in his blood means that when he did take up the sport, he was fairly good at it. His first ITF tournament came when he was aged 15. He showed plenty of promise and then three years later turned pro and was given a wildcard for an ATP event in Nottingham. Amazingly, he won his first-ever match on tour – and that win came against an established name in Pablo Carreno Busta. He turned pro after winning the junior US Open and quickly progressed through the ranks.
He also became only the ninth pro tennis player in history to win multiple Challenger tournaments before turning 17. That put him in very elite company; others to have achieved this feat include Rafael Nadal, Novak Djokovic, Bernard Tomic, Tomas Berdych, Richard Gasquet, and Juan Martin del Potro. 2016 saw him cross further milestones. He had already reached the top 250 in the rankings last year. But he took it a step further this time around by breaching the top 100.He also made it through to the Australian Open main draw for the first time; this was his maiden Grand Slam appearance. He would lose to fellow American Jack Sock in a five-set match.
But the loss did not deter Fritz; indeed, it made him do better. He received a wildcard entry into the ATP 250 tournament at Memphis and broke more records. He amazingly made it all the way to finals, becoming the youngest American since Michael Chang in 1988 to reach an ATP event final. Fritz also became the second-fastest American ever to reach an ATP final; only John Isner was quicker, as he reached an ATP final in his second event as compared to Fritz’s third.
However, injury struggles in 2017 derailed his momentum. And it would not be until 2019 that he’d become a title winner in the pro circuit. He won the Eastbourne International title that year. Fritz has since finished as a runner-up on four seperate occasions. Despite that, he continues to impress and show growth as a player. 2021 saw him reach the semis at Indian Wells and also the quarters of the Paris Masters. And he began the 2022 season by reaching the fourth round of the Australian Open.
The newest member of the Fritz Coaching Team is Michael Russell, a former American professional tennis player who holds the record for most singles titles won on the United States Tennis Association (USTA) Pro Circuit (24). Russell engaged in varsity-level athletics. Prior to turning pro, he played college-level tennis in college and won the 1997 National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Rookie of the Year award. The 1997 Rolex Collegiate All-Star Team included Russell as well. In 1997, Michael Russell turned pro and started playing tennis. He sustained a right arm injury a week before he was scheduled to turn professional, but he didn’t let that stop him. Russell took the following five months to recover before rejoining the tennis scene.
Russell had a successful year in 2021, finishing the year among the top 100 ATP players. Rusell had successfully navigated the qualifiers to four Grand Slams in a row (From the 2000 Wimbledon to 2001 Roland Garros). Despite losing the first two sets, Gustavo Kuerten defeated Russell in five sets in the fourth round of the 2001 Roland Garros tournament, which Russell had advanced to. Despite suffering from numerous injuries throughout his playing career, frequently needing surgery, and missing significant amounts of time from competition, Michael Russell was always adamant about becoming a successful tennis player.
