A. de MINAUR/T. Fritz
7-6, 6-3
THE MODERATOR: First question for Taylor.
Q. When you play Alex, it can be quite a battle. Your head-to-head is so close. He's now moved 6-5 ahead of you. What is it when you come to play him that makes things a little bit difficult?
TAYLOR FRITZ: I mean, I think obviously the head-to-head is close, but he's never been my favorite person to play because I think, one, he moves so well, but he doesn't play very defensive against me.
I watch him play other matches. Sometimes I feel like he is willing to rally, play a bit safer. I feel like he plays very, like, offensive against me. His ball stays very flat and low. It can sometimes be tough to attack off that ball if I'm not feeling great with my forehand.
In the head-to-head a lot of the times I've beaten him, I've felt good attacking. A lot of times that I've lost to him, I haven't been able to just hit the forehand off that, like, flat, flat low ball that he hits well enough. Yeah, that's part of it.
Like, he moves so well, but at the same time I can't just be steady because he also has the capabilities of being very aggressive, too, taking the ball early.
Q. How is the knee? What is the plan with it over the next month or so? Rest? Anything more you want to do with it?
TAYLOR FRITZ: Yeah, I mean, it's not like it was I'd say towards the end of my match the other day. I don't think it would be fair to use it as much of an excuse for today.
It wasn't that bad. Like I said, a lot of times where I can get a day, like a light day, practice, I don't have to play an intense match, just one day off, I can normally come back and it's not too bad. It wasn't the problem today, I would say.
I think the plan, I've already been trying to do the proper rehab things you do for it for a while now. Like I said, it's tough when I'm still playing on it and pounding it.
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 three weeks or more than three weeks (smiling), so...
I'm hoping that instead of playing catch-up with injuries in my body, this time around I can actually get healthy and be able to train.
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 just kind of trying to maintain and take time off, feel like I could be healthy, fresh, ready to play tournaments. I didn't really get to go as hard as I would have liked to in my time off.
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, then still have time to train and be ready for the next season.
Q. How do you assess your ATP Finals globally? The three matches, if you look at them as an overview...
TAYLOR FRITZ: I think I played really well the first two matches. I think today was not my best. I think, again, a lot of the struggles I had are because of the way that Demon hits the ball.
He was just kind of picking sides, guessing sometimes on my serve. It made it tough sometimes to serve because I'd hit serves that I'm used to never coming back, and he's already taken three steps in that direction when I toss the ball. He just, like, crushes the return back at me. He did a lot of good things.
Yeah, today was probably the match that I'm not super happy about. I thought the other two matches I played well, did a lot of things well that maybe I hadn't been doing well. I thought the first two matches I returned exceptionally well. That's been something that I feel like I haven't almost been doing as well as I normally do this year. I was happy about that. The serving, the returning, so...
There's some positives to take. Obviously, right now I feel pretty, like, upset.
Q. This morning the president of the ATP Gaudenzi gave a press conference. He was talking about the top players who don't like too much, most of the top players, the length of the Masters 1000s. I don't know what you think about it, if you are in favor or against. I tried to suggest and ask Gaudenzi if it could be possible to give to the top eight players two byes instead of one so they could get there if they want to use that option without getting points or money, starting from the third round. Do you think that could be a good idea or not? You could decide to play with just one bye and play the second round, or start to play with the third round so that you could reach the tournament three, four days later, if you have exhibition before, stay with the family. Your tournament would last eight days instead of 12. What do you think about? What was your original position about the seven Masters 1000s lasting 12 days instead of eight?
TAYLOR FRITZ: I think that idea gets very tough with players deciding if they want to play or not play because then it messes up the entry cuts for some players. Some players don't know if they're going to get in, if they're not going to get in if a player starts in what round.
I don't think the players should get the chance to start that many rounds ahead. That almost gives the top players too much of an advantage. They only need to win a couple matches and they'll already be in the quarters or the semis.
I think for me, my standpoint was I didn't actually know what to expect when we switched to the two-week Masters. For me, as I said before, I didn't necessarily hate it this year because I felt like I needed a lot of times that day off in order to play the next day. I wouldn't have made the semis of Toronto this year if we played back to back every single day. My knee would not have been able. I couldn't have kept up with playing every day. In that aspect I think it helped me.
My stance has always kind of been I'd prefer one week, but if we're just going to use that time that we saved and it not being a two-week, to just play other tournaments, then what's the point?
I'd love for the Masters to be condensed back to what they were to create more weeks off in the calendar for the players. But if we're going to condense the two weeks back to one, then just add another tournament the next week, then I don't see what the point is really.
Q. I remember speaking to you about 18 months ago about the difference of the big three era. You said it felt more open. Players were going into the tournament and it wasn't like we have to beat Federer, Novak, Nadal. 18 months later, where do you see it? Looking ahead to next year, are you excited again to go against them?
TAYLOR FRITZ: When did I say that? Three years, four years ago (smiling)?
Q. 18 months ago. You were saying then, compared to that kind of peak big three era, it felt more open.
TAYLOR FRITZ: Now we're just in the big two (smiling).
I think the difference is back when we had the big three, I mean, I'm a lot better of a player now. I think obviously if I play well, I can play a close match with Carlos, like we saw.
Yeah, I need to continue to improve. That's just what my focus is. Obviously those two are ahead of everyone. The draws are open when one of them... I mean, Shanghai Carlos doesn't play, Jannik happens to lose, something like that.
But no, 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 'em, maybe both of 'em.
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.
Yeah, that's kind of how I see it.
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