In ATPTour.com's series, Sliding Tour Moment, a host of top players reflect on a career-defining experience, one that they look back on as pivotal in their journey through tennis. This week, Taylor Fritz reflects on a little-known win, earned when he was still a junior, that convinced him he could go pro. Read all instalments of Sliding Tour Moment here.

There have been many chapters in Taylor Fritz’s journey to becoming one of the most consistent performers on the ATP Tour.

The 29-year-old American is an 11-time tour-level titlist and has climbed as high as No. 4 in the PIF ATP Rankings. Yet Fritz points back past all those achievements when it comes to identifying a pivotal moment in his tennis story. Instead, he refers to a little-heralded second-round win at a World Tennis event in Calabasas, California, in March 2015.

“I was playing a Futures when I had just turned 17,” Fritz recalled to ATPTour.com. “I was still a junior and I hadn’t played a lot of pro tournaments. I had no idea what the level was like of people who were ranked professionally.

“I played a guy ranked 210 or 220 maybe. Back then you didn’t see a lot of people at that ranking in Futures, and I beat the guy like 2 and 0. I remember getting off the court and telling my mum, ‘I’m going pro. I’m for sure going pro’. This guy is 200 in the world and I just destroyed him’.”

Fritz was referring to his 6-2, 6-0 victory against then-World No. 211 Fabiano De Paula, a Brazilian player nine years his senior. He revealed that the nature of the victory played a key role in a wider family discussion about whether to play college tennis.

“[My mum] was always the parent that was a little more supportive of me turning straight pro, I think,” Fritz said of his mum, former Top-10 WTA star Kathy May Fritz, and her reaction to the De Paula win. “The other reason I was like that was there were ongoing conversations at the time between whether I should go to college for a year or two, and then maybe see, or just go pro.

“I just wanted to go pro. My dad wanted me to do at least a year at college, and try and get stronger, but after that one I was like, ‘Going pro for sure’.”

Perhaps the decision was made easier by the fact that Fritz was clearly a big talent, one who would ultimately finish 2015 as the World No. 1 junior. He certainly remembers plenty of support from those around him for the more direct route to professional tennis, and he took the decision after winning the 2015 US Open boys’ singles title.

“I think [my coaches] probably already knew, and I think I probably already knew that I could [go pro],” Fritz said, when asked why the De Paul match still stood out all these years later. “I think that was just a lot of reassurance, like, ‘That guy is ranked 200! And it wasn’t a close match’.

“There’s a lot of other moments like that. I think once I first turned pro officially, I won the first Challenger that I played. Then I got a Special Exempt for the next one and won that one too. I think when I did that, I was feeling that I was definitely on my way to the Top 100. Just off of that, I think I was ranked 200ish. After that I definitely felt like I’d made the right decision, and I was on my way.”

Fritz On Looking Back As A Tennis Player:
“I’d say I’ve had lots of moments or matches like [the one in Calabasas]. Obviously when I was young, it was like, ‘Okay maybe I can be a pro’. Or then, ‘Okay maybe I can be better’. Or then when I was already a pro, ‘Okay wow, things are working’. There’s a lot I can point to where I feel like things kind of made sense and gave me a lot of hope.

“I think it’s not so much about [looking back to a] moment. I think if there’s a shot that I’m maybe struggling with, I’ll go back to a time when I just felt so good about it. So obviously I have thoughts in my head where I felt like I served amazing, or matches where I hit my forehand amazing, or whatever it may be. If I feel like something is a little off, then I might just go back to watch myself play and kind of break down exactly what I was doing, and kind of compare the differences.

“Without you even knowing, things change. Go and look at most pros and how they hit a forehand from when they were 18 to when they retire, and you’d be shocked how across the board everyone seems to have changed things. So sometimes I will go back and try to break it down and maybe try to figure out why in this moment of time it was feeling so good.”