Taylor Fritz increased the chances of an American winning the US Open 2024 on Sunday by reaching the quarterfinals for the second year in a row. The world no. 12 is having a dream run at the tournament but what has shocked many is that he hasn’t played at the Arthur Ashe Stadium even once this year.
Despite being the best American player in terms of rankings, Fritz has been playing at the Louis Armstrong Stadium ever since the start of the tournament. Talking about the same, tennis commentator Jose Morgado criticized how despite performing well, Fritz doesn’t receive enough hype as other American players do.
“Taylor Fritz a set away from making the #USOpen QFs for back to back years despite not even making Ashe so far this year. Not even vs. Berrettini. For some reason he is way less hyped in the US than other local players, despite being clearly the best of them all (results wise),” wrote Morgado in his post.
However, he left out the fact that it’s Fritz who prefers playing at the Louis Armstrong Stadium and has requested a lot of times to play there. Nick Kyrgios, who is currently commentating for the US Open at ESPN, was quick to remind the tennis journalist of the same, saying, “Incorrect. Requests that court.”
Incorrect. Requests that court. https://t.co/0SEcnoS4Ge
— Nicholas Kyrgios (@NickKyrgios) September 1, 2024
Former US Open champion Andy Roddick also didn’t shy away from pointing out the commentator’s mistake and corrected him. “He’s repeatedly said he prefers Armstrong and requests Armstrong,” replied Roddick.
However, Morgado tried to defend himself by mentioning that he is aware of Fritz’s request but that doesn’t change the fact that he is still not much hyped.
This prompted Roddick to mention that the context is ‘very important’ and was ‘very missing’ from the post. Roddick is quite right as it could mislead the readers into believing that Fritz was not being alloted the US Open center court for not being ‘hyped’ or liked by fans.
Fritz became only the second men’s singles American player to reach the quarterfinal of three of the four grand slams in the same year. The first one was Roddick from way back in 2007.
Taking his 2024 Roland Garros revenge, Fritz beat the Norwegian Casper Ruud in the fourth round at the 2024 US Open. After initially falling in the first set, the American, with the help of his strong serves, managed to clinch three sets straight. He also broke Ruud on four occasions and earned his seat in the quarters of the home slam.
He will now be facing Germany’s Alexander Zverev.
