Taylor Fritz refused to predict who would win the Six Kings Slam final after winning the third-place match. The American prevailed after Novak Djokovic had to retire following their gruelling 76-minute first set.
Fritz won it 7-6, but was playing first on Saturday rather than in the final after losing 6-4, 6-2 against Carlos Alcaraz on Thursday. Jannick Sinner made similarly short work of Djokovic, winning their semi-final 6-4, 6-2.
Before the final, an interviewer asked the American who he believed would win. “Don’t do that to me,” he replied during an on-court interview.
“It’s really tough to say. What I will say when I played Carlos, it felt very, very tough. I definitely want to see what Sinner does to deal with that, because I didn’t have the answers.”
Fritz also spoke about what it is like to play Djokovic. “It’s amazing,” he said. “It’s crazy, all these guys that I grew up watching dominate tennis, and I get to play with them.
“It’s not like this is anything new; Novak’s been beating me for a very long time, probably at least the last eight years. It’s always a pleasure to share the court with the best players of all time.”
He also showed sympathy for his opponent having to retire. “That was really physical,” Fritz said. “What happens is you get into those really long games and the ball starts to wear out and get so huge, to the point where it’s so hard to get a free point on the serve, or a winner, so it’s playing the long points and games.
“It makes everything slower, longer, it’s such a tough set, and at the end of it, conditions just got so slow. We were playing long rallies, back-to-back-to-back, just fighting for every point, so it was brutal.”
