Tennis-Fritz not looking too far ahead at Australian Open

Audio By Carbonatix

Enlarge

MELBOURNE (Reuters) – Taylor Fritz has no plans to deviate from his usual Grand Slam approach when he begins his Australian Open campaign and says he is focused on taking it one game at a time as he chases a first major title.

Fritz arrives at Melbourne Park ranked a career-high fourth in the world after a stellar year in which he reached his first Grand Slam final on home soil at the U.S. Open, where he was beaten by world number one Jannik Sinner.

The 27-year-old was also beaten by the Italian in the ATP Finals decider in Turin in November.

“I think it kind of feels the same. I’m approaching it as I have other Slams,” Fritz told reporters on Friday. “Last year I was happy with all my Slam results. I want to treat it the same way.”

Fritz opens his campaign against compatriot Jenson Brooksby and says it would be a mistake to look at who he could potentially meet in the later rounds.

“The worst thing I can do is be looking super far ahead in the draw and be looking I’m a top-four seed, putting all this pressure on myself,” he added.

“It’s the same mentality I always have: take it one match at a time, don’t look too far ahead.”

As well as reaching the final at Flushing Meadows, Fritz got to the last eight at the Australian Open and Wimbledon last year and he recognises the improvement in his game.

“After I played kind of a stretch last year of the U.S. Open final, playing Jannik, the Laver Cup deciding match against Carlos (Alcaraz), the Shanghai Masters match against Novak (Djokovic), I felt like I had a really good idea of some common themes I can work on,” he added.

“I feel like since Shanghai, I’ve done a really good job of improving. I still lost two matches to Jannik at the World Tour Finals, but I said there I felt much more comfortable in those matches than I did in the U.S. Open final.”

(Reporting by Pearl Josephine Nazare in Bengaluru; Editing by Peter Rutherford)