C. RUUD/T. Fritz
6-3, 4-6, 7-6
THE MODERATOR: Taylor, you have another tough match against Felix on Thursday. How do you see this one?
TAYLOR FRITZ: It's a lot different in this format. Typically when you lose, you leave. Obviously the match tonight, it sucks to lose that. It was so close. I need to regroup because I come back against Felix and win that, then I'm out of the group. Winner goes through.
It's going to be a lot of big hitting. Kind of honestly how every match is going to go on this court, it's going to come down to protecting your serve well, maybe making something happen on the return game. It's really going to just come down to holding serve and playing my service games well.
THE MODERATOR: Questions, please.
Q. What positives can you take from your performance on Thursday?
TAYLOR FRITZ: I thought outside of the first service game, I served pretty well. I thought in the second set, second set especially, I was serving really, really well. Just keeping that up for the match, that's one of the really important things. I guess I moved forward, came to net well.
I would have liked to see myself playing a bit better from the baseline.
Q. I wanted to know, were you a little bit astonished about the tennis Casper produced tonight just because of his last three, four weeks on hard courts?
TAYLOR FRITZ: No, not really. I expected him to play like that. I don't think he played, like, amazing or anything. I think he played a solid level, what I would expect from Casper. He's very good.
It was kind of what I expected from a player of his caliber.
Q. You have played both Casper and Rafa now. You said Casper was good. Do you think he's capable of beating Rafael Nadal on Thursday?
TAYLOR FRITZ: Yeah, for sure. It's interesting, tennis is a game of matchups. I'm not quite sure how that matchup's going to go. I felt like when I played Rafa, I had a lot more pace to work with my shots. With Casper, maybe not so much. I had to be generating a bit more. I think it caused me to miss more shots.
I think he has a very good chance of beating Rafa. Again, I'm not sure how they're going to match up. I'm not sure how the dynamic is going to work there.
Q. You're making your debut in Turin. Different kind of event. How are you finding the experience?
TAYLOR FRITZ: Yeah, I mean, I'm super pumped to be here. It's a great experience. It was one of my goals this year, to be playing here.
Yeah, it's tough to lose tonight 'cause I'm really trying to make it out of the group. I'll get another chance against Felix. But it is great to be here.
Q. You said protecting the serve is very important in this tournament. Casper is not the tallest player. What is difficult about playing him?
TAYLOR FRITZ: Well, honestly, on this court it's really tough to return pretty much everybody's serve. He was hitting his spots pretty good on the serve. He was definitely taking more risk on his second serve, which I fell like that was part of his game plan. He didn't want me to be stepping in and attacking a second serve, so he probably accepted he was going to maybe double-fault a bit more than normal. He was going to go after the second a bit more so I couldn't attack it as much.
Yeah, I don't know, he obviously has a good forehand. He was hitting his backhand well. I wasn't getting, I guess, a lot of pace to work with to flatten the ball out and play my game. I felt like I would have liked to be hitting the ball harder.
I think that had a lot to do with what he was giving me.
FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports