In the second round of the 2023 Indian Wells, Taylor Fritz took on one of the most talented US players, Ben Shelton.
In recent months, Shelton enjoyed a lot of attention as he reached quarterfinals at Australian Open. However, since then, he recorded three losses and only one win as Fritz warned the young players to avoid facing high expectations.
Fritz, who himself has had to deal with the pressures of being a promising player at a young age, believes that such pressures can be damaging to a player's development. He urged the tennis community to let young players like Ben Shelton develop at their own pace and avoid putting undue pressure on them to succeed.
“I think it’s a really dangerous thing that people do putting crazy expectations on young American players. He’s really talented. He’s super dangerous if he’s playing well, just with the serve and the weapons that he has. He definitely has a really bright future. He’s got a super explosive game and he has a lot of stuff that he can still — a lot of stuff that he will improve on.”
In the press conference, Fritz spoke about his own experiences, saying that he "wasn't ready" for the pressure he faced as a young player. He believes that he could have achieved more success earlier in his career if he hadn't been so focused on meeting other people's expectations.
“I felt like it was something that I maybe wasn’t ready for when I was 18, 19, and I think I was too young at the time to properly deal with it. I think it probably hurt me. I see it hurt a lot of young players because one of the most dangerous things that you can be dealing with in sports is having a lot of expectations and having a lot of pressure. It stops you from sometimes playing and competing as freely as you would like.”
“I wish I would have cared a lot less about all that stuff when I was younger, and I think that I could have had the progress in my game that I’ve had in the last couple of years maybe sooner.”
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