Tennis star chooses Olympics despite negative impact to his pro career
PARIS — A year ago at this time, Taylor Fritz was enjoying one of his best stretches of the tennis season. He won the title at the Atlanta Open, then backed it up with a semifinal appearance the following week in Washington, D.C.
Those back-to-back efforts earned him 430 points in the world rankings, which is the coin of the realm in pro tennis. Nearly everything from sponsorship bonuses to qualifying for the year-end championships to seeding at the Grand Slams is tied to those ranking points, which are compiled on a rolling 52-week basis.
And when Fritz returns to the U.S. next week, those 430 points are all going to be gone from his ranking. Simply because he decided to play the Olympics, which don’t award any points.
“Yeah, that hurts,” said Fritz, who will drop from No. 11 to No. 13 as a result of being unable to defend any of those points. “But it is what it is.”
But given the circumstances, he wouldn’t have it any other way.
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Fritz said there was no particular result here in Paris that would justify him deciding to sacrifice those points. He came here for entirely different reasons.
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But still, a long Olympic run here would be a nice reward for someone who has carried the banner of American men’s tennis the last couple years with unimpeachable class, including his decision to play in Paris while three of his countrymen – Ben Shelton, Francis Tiafoe and Sebastian Korda – all decided to stay home and get ready for the hard court season.
Fritz took a big step toward that kind of result on Tuesday when he beat Great Britain’s Jack Draper 6-7, 6-3, 6-2, advancing to the final 16.
“I don’t know where I’m going to be in four years,” Fritz said, explaining his decision to prioritize the Olympics. “I’m going to be 30. I hope I’m going to play in (the Los Angeles Olympics), and even if I do, I wouldn’t want that to be my first Olympics. I kind of want to get this experience and really give myself the absolute best chance to perform in LA. I think that’s going to be a great opportunity for me, and being here is a great experience for that.
“I’m kind of just looking at the big picture and obviously representing my country, but I understand why some of the other guys would want to try to play those tournaments (in the U.S.) and pick up the points.”
What softens the blow for Fritz a bit is that he’s in the midst of a very good, consistent season. In addition to picking up titles in Delray Beach and Eastbourne, he reached the quarterfinals at the Australian Open and Wimbledon, and the semifinals of the Madrid Masters.
That puts him at No. 9 in the so-called “race,” which is the calendar-year points calculation to determine which eight players qualify for the ATP Finals.
“I’m in an OK spot right now,” he said. “I think it’s easier to look at it that way.”
But the big-serving Fritz did raise the possibility of the ATP making some adjustments in the future to account for players like himself who just have the poor timing of losing a lot of points in an Olympic year. It’s an issue that will have particular salience after this event, which had a number of top players either opt out due to injury or choose to play in Atlanta and Washington. The bottom line is that the field in Paris is not as strong as it could be, and though there are some legitimate reasons for that, it’s true that the importance of Olympic tennis is often in the eye of the beholder.
Other than national pride and personal ambition to win a medal, there’s no tangible incentive to play this tournament. If anything, there’s a disincentive. Perhaps it’s time for some accommodations to be made that would actually strengthen the field rather than weaken it. Whether that’s deferring the points drop by a year or letting people keep half the points they’d lose for playing the Olympics, it’s time for some better ideas.
“I don’t think you need to do points, but if you don’t, players that have points should probably be protected in some way,” Fritz said. “It’s a tough situation because obviously you’re motivated to play for your country, but in the end it can affect your ranking and your career by coming here. It’s not, I guess, the most ideal system we have set in place, but I don’t really have a clear way to fix it.”
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