Taylor Fritz Reflects on Disappointing End to 2025 Season

Taylor Fritz opened up on the end of his 2025 season and looked to next year.

Alex de Minaur defeated Taylor Fritz in 2025 ATP Finals. | IMAGO / ABACAPRESS

On Thursday afternoon, Alex de Minaur defeated Taylor Fritz in straight sets during their group stage match at the 2025 ATP Finals: 7-6 (3), 6-3. The loss officially ends an incredible campaign for Fritz.

The American tennis star is the ATP World No. 6 with a record of 53-23 and two singles titles. Still, it was not the conclusion that Fritz had hoped for in Turin, Italy.

As always, Fritz's post-match press conference was illuminating. The 28-year-old reflected on today's match, the end of his season, and looked forward to the off-season.

Loss to Alex de Minaur

After today's win, de Minaur now has a 6-5 lead over Fritz in their head-to-head matches. Fritz was asked about their close record. "Obviously, the head-to-head is close, but he's never been my favorite person to play because, one, I think he moves so well, but he doesn't play very defensive against me," said Fritz.

"I watch him play other matches and sometimes I feel like he is willing to rally play a bit play a bit safer but I feel like he plays very like offensive against me is his ball stays very flat and low so it can sometimes be tough to attack off that ball if I'm not feeling great with my forehand I think you know in the the head-to-head a lot of the times I've beaten him.

I've felt good attacking. And a lot of times that I've lost to him, I haven't been able to just hit the forehand off that like flat low ball that he hits, well enough," concluded Fritz.

Knee Injury

Fritz has dealt with a knee issue dating back to at least the Cincinnati Open. However, he refused to use that as an excuse today.

"I don't think it's be fair to use it as much of an excuse for today. It wasn't that bad. A lot of times where I can get a day like a light day, a light practice, I don't have to like play an intense match, just one day off, then I can, normally come back and it's not it's not too bad. So, it wasn't the problem today, I would say.

Fritz added, "I think the plan is, I mean, I've already been trying to do the proper rehab things you do for it for a while now, but like I said, it's tough when I'm still playing on it and pounding it."

Off-Season Plans

Fritz's off-season plans will largely be focused on recovering from injuries. "So I'm going to have a little bit of time off. I'm really excited. This is the first off-season I'm going to have in probably three or four years, that's more than three weeks. So, I'm hoping that instead of kind of playing catch-up with injuries in my body this time around, I can actually get healthy and be able to train."

He explained, "I think one of my biggest issues this year was anytime that I wasn't playing tournaments or matches, I wasn't actually able to really work on the things I felt like I needed to work on to get better and train hard, I felt like I was kind of just trying to maintain and take time off and just feel like I could be healthy and fresh and ready to like play tournaments and I didn't really get to go as hard as I would have liked to in my time off.

So the plan is to just stay on top of the rehab, and hopefully the rehab with not playing a ton of tennis for a couple weeks, will show some improvements, and I can get it better and then still have time to train and be ready for the next season."

ATP Finals Performance

Fritz struck a positive tone when he was asked to evaluate his three matches in Turin. "I think I played really well the first two matches. I think today was not my best. But I think again, a lot of the struggles I had are because of the way that Demon (de Minaur) hits the ball, and he was just kind of picking sides, guessing sometimes on my serve."

He later added, "But today was probably the match that I'm not super happy about, but I thought the other two matches I played well. And did a lot of things well that I maybe hadn't been doing well. I thought the first two matches I returned exceptionally well in both those matches.

And that's been something that's I feel like I haven't almost been doing as well as I normally do this year. So I was happy about that and the serving the returning. So you know, there's some positives to take, but obviously, right now, I feel pretty upset."

Carlos Alcaraz and Jannik Sinner

Fritz was asked about the change between the "Big Three" era and now. Plus, if he was excited about facing Carlos Alcaraz and Jannik Sinner next season.

"Now we're in the 'Big Two.' I think the difference is back when we had the 'Big Three,' I'm a lot better of a player now. So, I think if I play well, I can play a close match with Carlos like we saw. And yeah, I need to continue to improve, and that's just what my focus. Those two are ahead of everyone," explained Fritz.

"I wouldn't say things are super open. If you want to win a big title, more than likely you're going to have to beat one of them, maybe both of them. That's kind of just what my focus is on, trying to get healthy so then I can put in the time on the court to practice and improve and try to get better and work on the things I need to work on and to continue to try and close the gap. That's how I see it."