As the quarter-finals of the 2024 Australian Open are underway, 12th-seeded Taylor Fritz remains the last American hope to win the Grand Slam. Fritz’s run in the Majors has been extremely impressive, taking him to his 3rd Grand Slam quarter-final in two years. This has ensured that Fritz jumped up the ATP Rankings and could be in the Top 10 by the end of this tournament.
Fritz started his campaign against Facundo Diaz Acosta of Argentina, beating him 4-6, 6-3, 3-6, 6-2, 6-4 to reach the second round. He subsequently beat Hugo Gaston of France in straight sets by 6-0, 6-3, 6-1. Fabian Mrozsan of Hungary produced some sort of resistance against Fritz, winning the first set of the third round by 6-3, but losing the next three by 4-6, 2-6, 2-6. He then beat World No. 7 Stefanos Tsitsipas 7-6 (7-3), 5-7, 6-3, 6-3 in the fourth round to reach the quarter-final.
However, his quarter-final clash is against possibly the toughest opponent in the tournament, the defending champion Novak Djokovic. The score is currently 3-3 in the first set, with Fritz matching up the Serbian GOAT pound-for-pound in every aspect. If he goes on to beat Djokovic, it will be a massive upset at the quarter-finals stage.
Fritz reached his career-best ranking of 5 last year. After winning the Indian Wells title in 2022, beating Alex de Minaur, Andrey Rublev, Miomir Kecmanovic, and finally Rafael Nadal en route to his maiden ATP Masters 1000 title.
He reached the Wimbledon quarter-finals for the first time and followed his great run into 2023, starting the year by winning the United Cup. When he won the 2023 Delray Beach Open, beating Miomir Kecmanovic 6-0, 5-7, 6-2 in the finals, he entered the Top 5 ATP World Rankings for the first time.
Unfortunately for Fritz though, he couldn’t maintain that rank with losses at the Mexican Open, Indian Wells, and Monte-Carlo Masters, despite repeatedly breaking into the Top 8. He reached the US Open quarter-finals for the first time but lost the 2023 Japan Open to wildcard entrant Shintaro Mochizuki. All of this pushed him farther back in the rankings.
Fritz’s stands a realistic chance of breaking into the Top 10, also by the virtue of Stefanos Tsitsipas and Alex de Minaur crashing out of the tournament before the quarter-finals. Tsitsipas, the defending runners-up of AO, entered the fourth-round contest as the favorite to win but lost to Fritz. de Minaur too lost out to Andrey Rublev in the quarter-finals despite having an upper hand in head-to-head entering the match. The score was 4-6, 7-6 (7-5), 7-6 (7-4), 3-6, 0-6.
All of these have resulted in a ranking pushback for them, creating a great chance for Taylor Fritz to enter the Top 10. He is currently ranked 12 in the world. Holger Rune and Hubert Hurkacz have also gone up a rank due to this. Ben Shelton, Frances Tiafoe, and Tommy Paul have maintained their respective rankings 17, 16, and 14 entering the Majors. However, Tiafoe, Paul, and Shelton have lost a significant amount of points in the current week’s ATP rankings owing to their defeats.
Will Taylor Fritz move past the quarter-final stage of the Majors?
Of all the challenges that lay or have ever laid in front of Fritz, beating Djokovic is right up there. Djokovic is 10 years older than Taylor Fritz but shows no signs of weakness on the court against his younger opponents. The duo have met eight times in their career so far, with Djokovic winning all eight of those encounters. This started from the 2019 ATP Masters Monte-Carlo Round of 16, when he won 6-3, 6-0. Djokovic also won twice at the Grand Slams against him. At the 2021 Australian Open Round of 32 and the 2023 US Open quarter-finals.
The next quarter-final is Jannik Sinner vs Andrey Rublev, where despite Sinner’s inexperience and young age, he is predicted to win by The Sports Rush, among others. Rublev, who is high after his win against Alex Minaur, would also like to make a strong statement by reaching his first-ever semi-finals.
Hubert Hurkacz and Daniil Medvedev are in the next quarter-finals in line, where surprisingly Hurkacz takes a lead in their head-to-head so far by 3-2. But Medvedev’s form in Grand Slams might give him the edge over the Polish tennis star. The final quarter-final is Alexander Zverev vs Carlos Alcaraz. Zverev has an advantage in head-to-head there by a 4-3 margin, but given Alcaraz’s current peak form at age 20, he might just make it to the semi-finals.
