Taylor Fritz pays classy tribute to Novak Djokovic after Six Kings Slam grueller
Taylor Fritz was left to rue his chances at winning the Six Kings Slam after being forced to play for third place, with Jannik Sinner triumphing over Carlos Alcaraz
Taylor Fritz refrained from predicting the winner of the Six Kings Slam final after his victory in the third-place playoff. The American emerged victorious when Novak Djokovic had to bow out during their grueling 76-minute opening set.
Fritz won the set 7-6 before Djokovic, who later apologized profusely to the Saudi crowd, chose not to proceed. Instead of vying for the championship, Fritz found himself battling for third place on Saturday after a 6-4, 6-2 defeat to Carlos Alcaraz on Thursday.
Jannik Sinner also put up a commanding performance against Djokovic, clinching a 6-4, 6-2 win in their semifinal showdown. When prodded by an interviewer to choose a final winner, Fritz replied: "Don't do that to me."
He added, "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."
Sinner eventually triumphed over Alcaraz 6-2, 6-2, bagging a $6 million prize. Fritz also shared his thoughts on playing against Djokovic. "It's amazing," he commented.
"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."
Fritz expressed understanding towards Djokovic's decision to retire from their match. "That was really physical," Fritz admitted.
"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."
After his defeat, Djokovic said: "I want to apologize to everybody, sorry guys, I'm sorry you couldn't see the second set," Djokovic said.
"But credit to Taylor, I mean, we had some incredible games towards the end of that set, and it was one of the longest sets I've ever played, to be honest.
"It was amazing to be in Riyadh once again, I want to thank everybody for really welcoming me here. This is the third time I have been here in three years and hopefully, if I keep on going next year, I'll be back, if you guys want me here."