After Loss to Shapovalov, Fritz Admits: "I Choked it"

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After Loss to Shapovalov, Fritz Admits: "I Choked it"

Heartbreak city. That was the story of Taylor Fritz’s five-set loss to Denis Shapovalov on Day 5, and the American wasn’t shy about admitting that he blew the fourth set in his 3-6 6-3 4-6 7-6(5) 6-2 loss to the 12th-seeded Canadian.

“I just choked it,” he said.

Fritz served for the match at 5-3 in the fourth set, and came up short against Shapovalov. He was extremely hard on himself for not finishing the job during his virtual press conference after the match.

“Fourth set I played great all the way up until when I served for it,” he said. “I just really didn’t come up with the shots I needed to come up with. That’s the most frustrating part is I played great, and I put in all the work, everything I had to do and I had it—and I just choked it.”

Fritz was complimentary of Shapovalov as well, saying that the Canadian played lights-out down the stretch.

“He was really tough in the fifth set, he was just really, really tough,” he said. “I think the biggest difference was the way his serve got going at the end of the fourth. I was in so many return games in the third and the beginning of the fourth. I maybe even could have had a chance to get a double-break in the fourth set, I had a couple looks. He really started finding his serve and that was the biggest difference in the fifth set. He was bombing the serve into his least favorite spots to serve, so there’s not much I can do when he’s doing that.”

But Fritz, who dropped to 0-3 lifetime, refused to forgive himself for not serving the victory out when he had the chance.

“It’s an opportunity that I let go of, like I said before, I did all the work and I played a great match and when it came time to serve it out—and I did a really good job holding serve the two games prior, he played two amazing return games the two games prior and I was able to get out of them—that last service game I just didn’t come up with the serves,” Fritz said. “I worked for the match, and I deserved it and I absolutely choked it. I can admit because I pride myself on being clutch and serving these matches out and playing well when it really matters and it just didn’t happen for me.”

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