From a young age, the USTA had high hopes for Southern California native Taylor Fritz. Bursting onto the ITF Circuit at the age of 15, Fritz reached the final of the 2015 Junior French Open. Though he is considered to be a better hard-court player, Fritz has experience in Paris.
Fritz holds the title of the top-seeded American male at the 2022 French Open. The 24-year-old earned the #13 seed at Roland Garros after a stellar start to his 2022 season.
Holding a 2022 record of 20-7, Fritz currently sits at #7 in the Singles Race to Turin. His career season is highlighted by a Round of 16 appearance at the Australian Open and his maiden Masters 1000 title at Indian Wells. The American has had some incredible wins this season against the likes of Felix Auger-Aliassime, Rafael Nadal, Cameron Norrie, and Andrey Rublev.
Fritz has the prototypical American makeup of a physically menacing player with a big forehand and even bigger serve. He has held 84.4% of his service games over the last 52 weeks, good for 14th on tour.
Although he does have the 2015 Junior French Open Runner-Up finish, Fritz has not carried that success over to the tour-level draw. In five appearances in Paris, Taylor Fritz holds a 4-5 record with his best finish as a Round 3 exit back in 2020. However, after leaving last year’s tournament in a wheelchair, you can be sure the top-seeded American is back for vengeance.
Fritz holds a career main draw tour-level record of 25-23 (52.1%) on the clay. This is only slightly lower than his 54.3% winning percentage on all other surfaces. This tells me that Frtiz’s early-season success should translate to Paris. Fritz reached the quarterfinals in both Houston and Monte Carlo, the only two clay-court events he has played in this season. He opted to skip out on Masters 1000 events in Madrid and Rome and instead go home to California to heal up and train.
Taylor Fritz at the 2022 French Open
Taylor Fritz opens his Roland Garros campaign against qualifier Santiago Fa Rodriguez Taverna. The 22-year-old Argentine impressively worked his way through qualifying but should not give the American much of a fight.
Fritz will have a Round 2 matchup against the winner of Michael Mmoh vs Bernabe Zapata Miralles. Both players rank outside the current World top 130.
Should Fritz reach Round 3 he will potentially play compatriot John Isner or an unseeded player. Regardless, Fritz will be favored to win that match and reach the second week in Paris.
It will start to get dicey in the Round of 16 where the American has a potential matchup with #3 seed Alexander Zverev. Zverev leads the head-to-head 4-2 over Fritz, but the two have never matched up on the clay.
#6 Carlos Alcaraz would be a projected quarterfinal matchup with the winner of Djokovic/Nadal waiting in the semifinals.
Do I think Taylor Fritz has a chance to win the 2022 French Open? No, I do not.
I do, however, believe Fritz can make the second week and be a thorn in the side of some of the top-seeded players in the tournament. Taylor Fritz has made incredible strides this season and there is no reason to not expect that to continue in Paris.
Main Photo from Getty.
