After 48 hours of killing time, Taylor Fritz finishes off Yannick Hanfmann in Wimbledon five-setter

Taylor Fritz says he doesn’t have a specific round that he wants to reach at Wimbledon this year. When he was asked about his goals for the fortnight after his five-set, three-day win over Yannick Hanfmann on Wednesday, the American was content to trot out the sports cliché of all sports clichés as an answer.

“I just want to take it one match at a time,” he said.

That’s a bland response, obviously, but as his first-round match showed, it’s also a prudent one. Fritz needed every last bit of concentration to eke past Hanfmann, a 31-year-old who has spent the vast majority of his career ranked outside the Top 100, but who is enjoying a belated surge in form. The German, who played college tennis at USC a decade ago, is up to No. 45, and he recorded a one-sided win over Fritz himself in May.

Way back on Monday, which can feel like a lifetime ago at a Grand Slam, Hanfmann looked to be on the verge of beating him again. For most of the first three and a half sets, he was the better player. Where Fritz was flustered by the wind, Hanfmann hit right through it, especially with his backhand. Rarely do you see a men’s match where the difference-making shot comes from that wing, but Hanfmann was dominating the rallies with his ultra-flat, ultra-compact, Andy Murray-like two-hander. It was enough to drive Fritz around the bend.

“Timing is a huge part of my game, and for two sets I’m genuinely just like trying to make balls,” Fritz said. “And he’s somehow able to, you know, rip balls and hit great shots. It was really frustrating for me.”

One of those ripped balls, a forehand crosscourt, gave Hanfmann three break points at 2-2 in the fourth set. He was already up two sets to one, and Fritz had struggled to make any inroads on his serve. One more point and Fritz’s Wimbledon campaign would have been in serious jeopardy. But he didn’t give Hanfmann a chance to win that point. Fritz hit a forehand winner, a service winner, and an ace in quick succession to save the break points, and save himself. By the time he held, he also noticed something else: The gusts that had been tormenting him weren’t as strong now.

“Luckily on Monday in the fourth set I felt like the wind kind of died down towards the end,” Fritz said. “I started to play much better tennis, serve better, kind of put myself in a good position to come back today and have a good shot at winning.”

Fritz is six years younger than Hanfmann, but he has played more meaningful five-setters in his career. What had he learned? That, despite the large number of points that are contested in a match of that length, it only takes a few to change the trajectory completely.

“I knew I was down,” Fritz said. “But if I could just win a few points, [I could] swing the momentum.”

The three break points he saved turned out to be the momentum-swingers. They were enough to get him to a fifth set, and get him, it turned out, to the rain delay. What did he do during the two-day intermission?

“I spent most of my time, like, sitting on the bench near my locker in the locker room, just like on my phone, like YouTube videos,” he said. “Just killing time.”

Whatever Fritz watched, it left him in the right frame of mind for his return to the court on Wednesday. He broke for 5-3 with a forehand winner, and held at love for the match. After 48 hours of waiting, the fifth set was over in less than half an hour.

Will Fritz feel like he’s playing with house money now? Will he feel properly tested, and confident that he can make more comebacks in the rounds ahead? He won’t have much time to think about it. He’ll go back out against Mikael Ymer tomorrow.

Fritz would seem to be at a crux in his career. He’s in the Top 10, he’s the No. 1 American, and at 25, he’s entering his prime. He’s had a solid 2023 as well, but he still has much more to prove at the Slams. He made the quarters, and nearly the semis, at Wimbledon last year, but at the three majors since, he has lost in the first, second, and third round. He’s also watched his countryman, Frances Tiafoe, make the semis at last year’s US Open.

This time Fritz has a draw that would seem to give him a path to his own Slam semifinal breakthrough. The top two seeds in his quarter are Casper Ruud and Jannik Sinner, neither of whom is unbeatable. Fritz is right not to announced a specific goal for Wimbledon, but you can tell he has his hopes.

“Obviously I made it to the quarterfinals last year, so I know for sure that I’m capable of doing that,” he says. “I’d love to get to that point and then see how much further I can go from there.”

“But I just want to take it one match at a time.”