SAN DIEGO — Torrey Pines High School's very own, Taylor Fritz did the unthinkable in the Indian Wells tennis tournament. Fritz fought his way through the ranks and ultimately upset Rafael Nadal, one of the greatest tennis players of all time.
Fritz was crowned king of the tournament walking away victorious. CBS 8's Marcus Greaves had the chance to sit down with Fritz and talk about the entire tournament, but more importantly, his match with Rafael Nadal.
Just give me your mentality going into this entire tournament.
So I made the semifinals the year before which is like at the time that was the best result I ever had. So I was thinking I just wanted to like kind of take it one match at a time and see if I could kind of recreate what I had done the year before, get myself in that same position again so yeah, I just tried to take it one match at a time obviously the first couple matches I was pretty nervous because I definitely had a lot of like pressure I put on myself a lot of expectations to do well because this is somebody that I had done well before previous years so third round and fourth round ball seven six and the third set matches easily could have lost both of those kind of just battled my way through them and my mentality was just kind of take it take it one match at a time and then once I got myself to the semifinals, I really kind of just loosened up and relaxed and played much better tennis than I had been before.
Was there any sort of mental barrier for you going into that semifinals?
No, you know, I was playing someone who I I'd beaten before, but I knew I had to play very well against, and you know, kind of knowing that it's someone I got to play really well against removes that. That kind of nervousness I have some times playing some shows to be because I know that I can't afford to be kind of tight or nervous. I kind of just have to go out and be loose and play free and that's going to allow me to play my best tennis so I kind of just got to that point and I knew that the previous year in the semis I felt like I had a winnable match and I played it a little maybe just a bit nervous. So this year I didn't want to go out there and do that. And so I played you know I played a really solid match
Did it seem like you were kind of the underdog going into this?
Yeah, I mean into that I mean obviously going into the semifinal match and the final match I was I was on paper the underdog. In the semifinals, I looked at it as more as like a definitely what is more like a 50/50 because it is someone who I've played quite a bit and it's such a big, big match. I felt like they were going to be a bit more nervous than I was with them you know, kind of expecting having more expectations on them. But yeah, I don't know. It's great to play in front of the home crowd and kind of feed off that feed off that energy. I felt like Indian Wells is you know, one of only places where I can play pretty much anybody and I'll get cheered for I guess except for Rafa in the finals. I learned that it's still Rothko there's still going to be we're still going to do for Rafa but yeah, I kind of just I don't know it's kind of like my place obviously playing there and it felt great and even though I was on paper, the underdog I still felt like the level of tennis I knew I could produce was going to be good enough.
Was there at least a little bit like Man, I'm really playing somebody who I would assume that you maybe thought of an icon going into you know, when you start playing tennis.
I mean, prior to the finals the biggest final I'd ever been in my life was in Acapulco and I also played often the finals of that so kind of been in this situation before this this one being much bigger obviously it's much bigger tournament but you know, not my first final against Rafa. I feel like the last time maybe I tried to try to do a little bit too much and this time I wanted to try to play more I wanted to play the right way but play kind of within myself and not you know, do things that I take chances that maybe I couldn't, didn't feel comfortable making just because I'm playing against Rafa so I tried to just play really aggressive play my game, not let him kind of dictate the points as much. I mean, both of us were kind of dealing with injuries as well. So, it just it was windy out there. So, it turned into a battle and I'm really happy with in that match kind of how I fought off the big points played the big points well and kind of dealt with a lot of the kind of incredible points and shots that he played. I kind of didn't let it let it bother me too much.
What was the turning point for you? When did you hit that moment where you were like, Okay, now I know I can win this thing.
I broke them I went double break to start the match, which is huge because I felt like even though I am playing rough, I felt like if I'm up to two breaks of serve, I should be able to just close out the set regardless of what I'm playing. So, I was able to do that when the first set but I still knew that there's a long way to go even though I was upset and then went down to break in a second, got it back and then once we were kind of just like on serving the second. I was like you know; I've been in a lot of his service games, I feel like I could break his serve. So as long as I keep holding my serve all it was going to take was one break and that could be it.
I didn't get it. But we went to the tiebreaker. And, you know, I think, the important thing about me winning the match was not thinking about winning the match, you know? I wasn't thinking about that even being that much of a possibility until it actually happened. So I kind of just stayed in the moment, didn't think about winning. Then I finally you know, once I got to that point, then it really hit me and I think it was really important not to kind of get ahead of myself and think that I was going to win or I'm about to win, I just kind of like took it one point in time. You know, when it was over, it helped a ton to get that kind of early lead to kind of give me that confidence that I could kind of get through that first set. Once I got through that first set, it's much easier to kind of just lock in it's like just one more set take it one at a time.
It's like it's simple. You know, I got I've been in a position before and I think the biggest challenge was kind of just having Rafa on the other side of the net and trying to like you know, have that self-belief and keep telling myself like I can like I can do it I can beat him like just kind of have that self-belief that I could actually beat him and in such a big mansion a big finally kind of just keep telling myself that I could do
Tell us about the feeling that you had after the match.
It was just like I mean probably you know, one of the bests easily one of the best moments of my life like I couldn't even believe it was real I kept saying there's no way like could I really like I really couldn't believe like everything that happened was actually real and something that I worked my whole life for winning anything well specifically was always like a sick a childhood dream of mine that you never really think is actually going to like a crazy one you never think's going to happen so I still I still spend a couple of months still stopping and thinking like wow, like that actually. Actually, happened but like it's tough to describe the feeling after like, that win, but like that feeling is like the reason why like definitely the reason why like I play tennis and like the reason why like, I love playing, you know.