summers ago but did not break through until the end of 2018. He says he has learned to be patient, whichwas not always the casewhen hewas a junior and found himself overtaken by contemporaries like Tiafoe and Paul. Jay Berger, who used to be head of men’s tennis in the United States and is now one of Opelka’s coaches, was especially supportive in those days. “When I would fall behind the group, he was always positive withme,” Opelka recalled. “He would say: ‘Your time will come. Just keep getting better. Don’t compare yourself to these guys. You’ll have your day.’ He would always tell me that.” Opelka added: “I think the key for me is to just constantly keep calm. That waymy mind can start thinking about what I need to do different. As soon as I openmymouth once, it’s a slippery slope, and then I’ll be complaining for two hours straight. So I know to bitemy tongue whenever I feel that urge andmymind starts working different. It starts looking for solutions.” Fritz broke into the world’s top 100 six years ago and has long been recognised as an outstanding talent, but it was only at his 22nd attempt that he reached the fourth round of a Grand Slam tournament, beating Roberto Bautista Agut at this year’s Australian Open before losing over five sets
to Stefanos Tsitsipas. “I’m24 and I’mgetting better all the time,” Fritz said. “Especially recently, my level has definitely jumped a lot and just my average level of tennis that I’m playing is somuch better. So I knew that especially now it was just amatter of time, maybe at some point a drawwould open up or I’d beat a really tough player. I never doubted it would happen.” The Californian expects to be playing his best tennis between the ages of 26 and 30. “I’m just trying to work as hard as I can, put myself in as many opportunities as I can to have big weeks, breakthroughs, just get myself in a good position for when I’m playingmy best tennis,” he said. “It happens at different times for everybody, and I know that I’mnowhere near playing the best tennis that I’mgoing to play. I know that I have a lot of improving to do and I’m working extremely hard to do it.” Opelka thinks it will not be long before an Americanmanmakes amajor Grand Slam breakthrough. He has great admiration for Tiafoe, says that Fritz “has really got a good understanding for his game” and reckons Paul is playing “the best tennis of his life”. Opelka also says that 20-year-old Brandon Nakashima, who broke into the top 100 last summer, is “a hell of a player”, but he considers the two 21-year-olds, Korda and
Brooksby, to be the best long-term American prospects for Grand Slam success. Korda, whose father Petrwon the AustralianOpen in 1998, has already reached the fourth round at bothRolandGarros and Wimbledon andwon his first tour-level title in Parma last summer. Brooksbymissed the whole of 2020 because of a toe injury but mademajor progress last year, becoming the youngest Americanman to reach the fourth round of theUSOpen since Andy Roddick in 2002. He broke into theworld’s top 50 for the first time after reaching his secondATP final inDallas in February before losing toOpelka. AndyMurray is another big admirer of Brooksby, who was the ATP’s Young Player of the Year in 2021. Last year the Scot described Brooksby on Twitter as “the sort of player I love to watch” and praised his great defence, the variety in his game and his “high tennis IQ”. Fritz acknowledges that he and his fellow 24-year-olds are nowbeing pushed by this even younger group of Americans. “I guess we are still pretty young but we’re not the young guys anymore,” he said. “All three of those younger guys [Korda, Brooksby and Nakashima] are really good players. Only time will tell, in a couple years, where they end up and how they develop their games. They all have a lot of potential.”
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