Taylor Fritz is an ambitious player, which explains why he has been a Top 10 mainstay for a while now.
Ahead of the 2024 season, the 26-year-old highlighted what his overall goal should be even while playing at an "average" level. In an interview on this week’s episode of The AO Show podcast, Fritz stated what would constitute a successful year even without playing his best tennis.
The ATP's Top 10 is traditionally considered the upper echelon of men's tennis. This is usually the yardstick, separating the elite from the rest of the pack. Fritz broke that barrier for the first time in October 2022 and became a mainstay at the beginning of the following month.
The 2022 season is considered the American's career-best year on tour. He won three titles, including his first-ever Master's on home turf in Indian Wells when he ended Rafael Nadal's 21-match winning streak at the start of the 2022 season.
However, he won more matches in a calendar year in 2023 and was firmly entrenched into the world's Top 10 all season. In spite of missing out on ATP Finals qualification for a second time, Fritz reckoned it was a positive year and wants to emulate the same success next year.
"I felt like my just average level, when I wasn't playing my best, was pretty good. In the end, I was still able to finish top 10, so I think if I'm not super, super happy with a lot of the results, and I'm still able to finish in the top 10, then it's probably a positive at the end of the year."
"I'm hoping I can kind of just regroup and start this upcoming year kind of like I have the last two years. And give myself a good kind of base to work off of for the rest of the year."