Taylor Fritz fell from a height this Saturday. Imperial since the start of the tournament, the American had only conceded eight games during his first two rounds.
But this time, the world number 4 was overthrown by a very good Gaël Monfils, who won his eighth consecutive match. Present at a press conference, Fritz praised the performance of his opponent of the day.
“I’m very demanding of myself, but this defeat won’t keep me from sleeping. Gaël just had a very good match.
He served incredibly and varied the zones well. I could never decipher his serve and anticipate where he was going to put the ball.
And when he didn’t pass his first, he served big seconds which took me off the court. It was really complicated to attack his second balls.
Even though I knew where the ball was going to go, he used so many slices that it was very difficult to hit the ball well. And he returned my serve well, even when I tried to vary it.
-It was hard to hurt him, he was throwing everything back. Even when I hit hard, it didn’t hurt him. I never felt like I was overwhelming him, and yet I didn’t hold back on my strikes.
The way he was thrusting into me seemed far too easy compared to what I could do to hurt him.
He played very, very, well and I couldn’t do much. If he continues to play like this… He won a title a week ago in Auckland, he had a five-set match in the first round, that was also physical.
It was hot. But if he can continue to play like today, I think it will be difficult for everyone to beat him.
He’s just very hard to play,” he said, according to comments collected by the Team.
