I’m a big Cristiano Ronaldo fan & love his confidence, people call him cocky, but I think I’m the same: Taylor Fritz
Taylor Fritz recently revealed that he is a huge fan of football superstar Cristiano Ronaldo and is enchanted by the Portuguese's unparalleled confidence. While Ronaldo's detractors may think that the Portuguese is overconfident and "cocky," Fritz was of the opinion that his uncanny self-belief made him truly special and relatable.
Speaking in a recent interview with ATPTour.com, the American declared that he has been a long-time supporter of the five-time Ballon d'Or winner -- right from his early days at Manchester United.
Taylor Fritz lavished praise on his idol for his incredible work ethic as well, saying that he did his best to adopt the same practices during his own sessions.
"I’m a massive fan of [Cristiano] Ronaldo. Like, forever. Not just from when he’s at United now, when he was at United earlier in his career. I’m such a big Ronaldo fan because I love his confidence," Fritz said.
"A lot of people call him cocky or whatever, but I think I’m very much the same way and I think that you need to be very confident and believe in yourself. I love his work ethic as well; he’s such an incredibly hard worker, so I look up to him a lot and so I’ve always just been a fan of United,” he added.
Most points won in Ballon d'Or voting: Cristiano Ronaldo (946 points) in 2017
Biggest winning margin in Ballon d'Or history: Cristiano Ronaldo (429 points) in 2016
G.O.A.T 🐐 https://t.co/xKddIHxpUo
Taylor Fritz also touched on his role in the upcoming Netflix documentary about tennis. The American alluded to the sport falling off in popularity in the US, at least beyond the world of Grand Slams and all-time greats, and hoped that the Netflix series would change all that.
The World No. 20 revealed that his goal was to get the major broadcast networks in America interested in their own players, to the point that they cared about what happened in tennis throughout the year.
"The ins and outs of our sport, it’s so cool, but no one really understands. Even though people know the Grand Slams and people know the all-time greats, people don’t know all the intricacies of it. One of my biggest goals in my career is to make tennis in the United States a much cooler sport that’s just much more popular amongst the average fan."
"I want ESPN, SportsCenter to be covering the American tennis players; results throughout the year, not just talking about a couple of players here and there at the Grand Slams. I think that would be cool to see tennis get that kind of attention," Fritz said.
"If I made the semifinals last year, then obviously I want to make the semifinals this year too" - Taylor Fritz on his target for the 2022 Indian Wells Masters
Taylor Fritz stated that the Indian Wells Masters was his favorite tournament, adding that it almost felt like it was his home event because he had grown up with a lot of relatives around the area.
For reference, the American is a Southern California native who was born in San Diego, a little over 100 miles away from Indian Wells.
"[The Indian Wells Masters] is my favorite tournament," Fritz said. "It feels like my home tournament because I have a ton of family that lives here and I spent so much time here growing up as well, coming here as a kid before I was a professional tennis player."
Grigor Dimitrov (23rd seed)
Cameron Norrie (21st)
Taylor Fritz (31st)
Nikoloz Basilashvili (29th)
🇧🇬 Grigor Dimitrov (23rd seed)
🇬🇧 Cameron Norrie (21st)
🇺🇸 Taylor Fritz (31st)
🇬🇪 Nikoloz Basilashvili (29th)
Who takes the 2021 @BNPPARIBASOPEN trophy home?! https://t.co/ktE4awfV7d
In 2021, Taylor Fritz reached the semifinals with an insane run of wins, defeating fifth seed Matteo Berrettini (third round), 10th seed Jannik Sinner (fourth round) and third seed Alexander Zverev (quarterfinals). The 24-year-old hopes that he can repeat his results from last year at the very least.
"I’m the kind of person that if I do something once, I expect myself to do it again; it should be easier to do it again. So, if I made the semifinals last year then obviously I want to make the semifinals this year too," Fritz said. "But that’s very tough."
The American will face the winner of the first-round encounter between Aljaz Bedene and Kamil Majchrzak in his opener this week. If all goes well, Taylor Fritz will once again lock horns with Zverev, this time in the fourth round.