MY ACCOUNT
Taylor Fritz had never experienced “worse pain in my life before a match” before overcoming an ankle injury to end Rafael Nadal’s winning start to the season and win the Indian Wells Masters on Sunday.
The American 20th seed, who has never been further than the fourth round at a major, claimed a breakthrough maiden ATP Masters 1000 title with a 6-3 7-6 victory over Nadal in two hours and six minutes.
Fritz, 24, was not sure if he would be able to take his place in Sunday’s decider after tweaking his ankle in Saturday’s semi-final win over Andrey Rublev which he battled in the lead-up.
The injury was far from ideal preparation coming up against the Spanish fourth seed, who was on a 20-0 run to start 2022 having won January’s Australian Open for a record-breaking 21st career major.
“I can’t even begin to describe how ridiculous it is that I was able to play how I could play today,” Fritz said during his post-match on-court interview. “I’ve never ever experienced worse pain in my life before a match.
“If I knew it was going to be that bad, I wouldn’t have come out here [beforehand] because I think people saw it. I took a couple of change-of-direction steps and screamed.
“I was trying to act tough as I had cameras on me. It probably looked like I was over-exaggerating the pain with how loud I screamed when I felt it.
“We did a lot of work leading up to the match. I went through a roller-coaster of emotions before the match, from thinking there’s no way I could possibly play then to doing so much work on the ankle and going out again hitting on one of the backcourts and being really happy, thinking I can play.
“Really it didn’t affect me out on the court. Unbelievable.”
California native Fritz, who reached last year’s Indian Wells semi-finals, admitted winning the event was a “childhood dream” and that it did not feel real.
“I’m going to have to hold back tears for every single interview I do and every on-court speech,” he said. “This is going to be tough. I’m such a happy crier.
“This is one of those childhood dreams, winning this tournament especially, you never thought would come true. I keep saying ‘no way this is real’.”
The title is the biggest of Fritz’s career to date, triumphing in his first Masters 1000 final, and becoming the first American men’s champion at Indian Wells since Andre Agassi in 2001.
Fritz is also the youngest male champion at the event since Novak Djokovic in 2011 and achieved that by ending Nadal’s career-best 20-match win streak, denying him a record-tying 37th ATP Masters 1000 title too.
“I’ve lost these matches against the big guys my whole life,” Fritz said. “It’s always felt like they’re unbeatable. To do it on the biggest stage, there’s no other way. To win a big title, I feel like you’ve got to beat the best.”
