By Scoop Malinowski
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Status:Â ATP no. 9. Winner of seven ATP singles titles.Â
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DOB:Â October 28, 1997Â Â Â In: Rancho Santa Fe, California
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Ht: 6-5Â Wt: 190
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First Tennis Memory:Â Being on the court with my dad’s college guys. He coached at College in the Desert. And just at our house and hitting two-handed forehands and backhands. I had to be like two or three years old.
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Tennis Inspirations: Â (Pete) Sampras, as far as role models go. (He was) a big role model for me. But inspiration…the reason why I play is I love to compete. Tennis is great because it’s one on one, it’s just you against someone else. It’s mental, physical. I just really like competing. And…winning [smiles].”
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First Famous Player You Met Or Encountered:Â (Andre) Agassi I would say. (When?) US Open. Because my mom was playing the seniors and my dad helped out Andre when he was younger. They knew each other. And I got to meet him. (How old were you?) I was so young. Like four or five. (You actually remember meeting Andre?) Barely.
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Greatest Sports Moment: Â Winning first ATP title in Eastbourne (2019).
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Most Painful Moment: Â Hmmm…I lost a match in high school tennis. There was a match I lost in high school tennis. That was the low point. (Score?) In high school tennis we played one set. I lost the set 7-6. Came out a little too confident, went down a break. The guy was serving big. Got to a tiebreaker, I just couldn’t do it [smiles].
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Favorite Sport Outside Tennis: Â To play? Or like my second best sport? (Both. Whatever.) I really like playing soccer.
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Three Athletes You Like To Watch & Follow: Â (Cristiano) Ronaldo. (Zlatan) Ibrahimovic. I like soccer a lot. And then…who else do I really like… are we going outside of tennis? (Anybody.) I really like (Juan Martin) Del Potro, tennis-wise.
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Strangest Match: Â My tennis matches have been pretty normal, to be honest. No strange things really happened.
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Embarrassing Tennis Memory: Â I’m sure I have but I just try to forget those.
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Funniest Players Encountered:Â On Tour? Well, I mean, no one knows it yet but the American guys coming up – Reilly Opelka and Tommy Paul are pretty hilarious guys. And also I think Sam Querrey is pretty funny.
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Last Book Read:Â I don’t even know. I haven’t read a book in a long time [smiles].
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Favorite Tournament(s): Â US Open’s a great event. Home soil Grand Slam. That’s one of my favorites. Or Indian Wells.
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Current Car:Â Black Tesla.
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People Qualities Most Admired:Â Just like people that are funny, good sense of humor, very friendly. And yeah, very friendly people who go out of their way to talk is nice.
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California · Head racquets · Nike · Taylor Fritz · USA Tennis
Andrew Miller · September 3, 2016 at 12:07 pm
Scoop hand Fritz your five books plus dans and rafas and Sampras. Sheesh.
Scoop Malinowski · September 3, 2016 at 7:06 pm
Fritz’s favorite player Delpo just thrashed Ferrer in straight sets -He was 3-6 head to head vs Ferrer before today – Delpo will be tough to beat for the young Austrian juggernaut –