It once made for a fun parlor game, handicapping American men’s tennis players and predicting who would finish the season with the highest ranking. Lately, though, Taylor Fritz has taken the fun and suspense out of the exercise. The 27-year-old Californian has broken away from the pack.
Though currently ranked No. 4—the highest ranking for an American in more than a decade—Fritz is not tennis’s most potent slugger. He is not the ATP’s best athlete. He is not the slickest mover. What is he? A consummate professional who controls what he can control—conditioning, diet, sleep, exercise—and minimizes variables. He is also fiercely ambitious about winning a major, unhappy with consolation prizes.
