ATP Tour

Inside Fritz's plan to shut down Alcaraz before he catches fire

Carlos Alcaraz has shown throughout his young career that he is able to raise his level to incredible heights with jaw-dropping shotmaking and athleticism. That is why Taylor Fritz’s coach, Michael Russell, believes his charge needs to stop the Alcaraz wave before it crests in their Wimbledon semi-final.

“That's part of the intangibles that Carlos has, his ability to explosively move around the court and his variety,” Russell told ATPTour.com. “He's able to serve and volley, he's able to hit drop shots, he's got great touch, and he's also able to hit winners from a lot of different court positions. So you expect him to hit some amazing shots and the crowd's going to be entertained.

“But at the same time, if Taylor's hitting his spots on the serve and he's looking to quickly get around and establish his forehand and use those good targets, [it will give] him opportunities to finish points and move forward. Then that's providing challenges to Carlos and not allowing him to basically dictate play and how he wants to play.”

Russell explained that Alcaraz will want to be the one moving Fritz around the court and taking the lead in the court-positioning battle to drive his advantage home. The American and his team are out to stop that before it begins.

“The biggest focus is making sure Taylor plays his game, and he doesn't overplay or overthink. He's such a strategist and he's got a great tennis IQ, and sometimes he has a tendency to overthink,” Russell said. “So he needs to continue to play how he's been playing. That's why he's been very successful these past not only three years, but more currently this past four weeks. He’s been so successful on the grass.”

Team Fritz will examine Alcaraz’s patterns — not just from the pair’s two previous Lexus ATP Head2Head meetings, but against other players — to formulate their own gameplan. But a lot of focus will be on playing Fritz's game, which helped the No. 4 player in the PIF ATP Live Rankings win grass-court titles in Stuttgart and Eastbourne last month.

“[That] is serving a high percentage, hitting his spots and playing power tennis, big forehands and really [being] dialed in on his returns and looking to come forward a little more,” Russell said. “The grass definitely helps his flat backhand and it helps the shots in general, so [a key will be] utilising those powerful groundstrokes to try to move forward as much as possible, because [he is] playing Carlos, who is extremely explosive and agile, and he can turn defence into offence very quickly.”

Former World No. 60 Russell will be watching carefully from Fritz’s box to help coach the 27-year-old through his first Wimbledon semi-final. What will be a telling sign of how the match is going?

“I think in general, when Taylor is locked in and focused, the dialogue between Taylor and the box and myself is minimal,” Russell said. “Sometimes if things are maybe not going as well, sometimes the communication can get a little more than necessary, but when he's really focused and locked in, you can just see he's in the zone and just really in that moment, not conversing as much with the box.”

One thing Fritz will have plenty of is confidence. The fifth seed lost his first two sets of the tournament against big-serving Giovanni Mpetshi Perricard before rallying into the second round, in which he won another five-setter against rising Canadian Gabriel Diallo.

“It builds a lot of confidence as both guys serve so big. Both were playing very well on the grass, especially Gabriel winning ‘s-Hertogenbosch. So coming through that tough match, you're also seeing the ball like a volleyball,” Russell said. “You're used to seeing those 140 mile an hour serves, so when you all of a sudden have opponents that are serving 125, 130, your reflexes are so dialed in from all the muscle memory from the faster serve.”

Importantly, Fritz felt well physically after those matches because the points were not as taxing as those in the third round against Alejandro Davidovich Fokina, who pushed him to four sets. That made recovery easier as he worked his way into the tournament.

Now Fritz has the opportunity to eliminate the two-time defending champion, reach his first Wimbledon final and earn the chance to compete for a Grand Slam title.

“He still has the confidence and belief in his game and he's played really well this last month winning two titles, and having that experience at the US Open just allows him to have more self belief and confidence in these stages,” Russell said. “I will continue to reiterate that getting ready for Friday's match, that he's been in this situation before. He's been on this Centre Court, e's played semi-finals in the night match at the US Open, and just continue to play his game.”