Fritz talks believing in himself when he turned pro at 17
ATP
Taylor Fritz turned professional at age 17, which can be risky, but the American held a firm belief he could be the best player in the world.
Fritz was an excellent junior player, and he was elected fairly early to pursue tennis as a profession. His first ATP match came in Nottingham, with his Grand Slam main draw debut coming a year later.
On his debut, the American player bested Pablo Carreno Busta 6-1, 6-4, showing his potential. His journey to the Top 10 was fairly quick, but the decision to pursue tennis wasn't easy, as he recently revealed in an interview with Team Optimum.
"Turning pro at 17, I would say, is every top junior's fear. What I did so well in the juniors, what if I don't make it. I felt like a switch flip as soon as I turned pro, and I was like 'now it's all real'. Everything I did before was awesome, but now it's like 'this is ... this is it'."
The key in Fritz's mind is belief. He always believed that he could succeed, and ultimately, he did. According to the American player, without believing something is possible, it's impossible to succeed.
That belief carried him to the Top 10 on the ATP Tour, and he will hope that the same belief could carry him also to the World No. 1 rank. Right now, that's quite far, but he's done it before, and there's no reason why Fritz couldn't prove that dreams come true once again.
"I've always known like, how can you ever be the best in the world, if you don't truly, like, believe you can be. You're never going to accomplish all the goals if you want to if you actually have that belief that you can do it."
