Taylor Fritz has battled an abdominal injury for much of this season and rolled his ankle last week in Geneva. While the American has been content with his level of play despite those issues, there is one particular aspect of his game that has plagued him recently: his ability to rise to the occasion on the big points.
After a 7-5, 3-6, 6-3, 6-1 defeat to Daniel Altmaier on Monday in the Roland Garros first round, Fritz felt that trend continued.
"It's kind of what's been going on a bit lately. I think I'm playing generally fine. It's just a lot of important points, I just am playing horrendous tennis on a lot of the important points," he said. "When I'm break point down, or I've got looks on his serve, like 0/30, 15/30, 30/30, break point — all the pressure, important points... I don't know what's going on. I'm finding ways to just play the worst point possible."
Fritz converted just one of five break points in the opening round, while saving just three of eight, according to Infosys ATP Stats. While he said he has been feeling unusually uncomfortable on the clay in recent weeks — his run to the last 16 in Madrid the lone exception — Fritz still feels his game has held up overall.
Looking ahead to the grass-court swing, the No. 4 player in the PIF ATP Rankings is eager to show his top level when it matters most.
"The fact that I'm not just converting big points, not playing big points well, the only way to get rid of that is have a match or a couple matches where that just doesn't happen and I perform well on some of those points," he said. "Once it's gone, it's gone. I'll never think about it again.
"That's the thing. It's tough. It's not something you can really fix in practice. I felt great about my game in practice. Overall I don't think I'm playing bad 90 per cent of the match, by any means. In any of the matches I played, by the way. The match last week in Geneva, the match just now, I think for 90 per cent of the match I'm playing normal. It's the 10 per cent which ultimately decides the tennis match, the really big points where it actually matters."
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