Taylor Fritz singled out world No. 72 Yoshihito Nishioka after reaching his maiden final at the ATP Finals.
The world No. 6 hasn’t faced the Japanese star in more than two years. But Nishioka has clearly made an impression, as Fritz admitted he was one of the toughest players to face.
Fritz earned his fourth successive win over Alexander Zverev in Saturday’s semi-final, winning a close battle 6-3 3-6 7-6(3).
After the match, Zverev admitted the American was an “uncomfortable player” for him to face and listed some of his other rivals who often caused a problem for him.
The world No. 2’s comments were put to Fritz in his own press conference. While he refused to go into detail about what worked in his match-up with Zverev, the 27-year-old named the players he struggled against.
“I mean, I wouldn’t say Sascha’s an uncomfortable or a comfortable matchup,” he said of his rivalry with the German star.
“I’d say there’s a lot of matchups where I feel pretty neutral and it’s just going to depend on certain things.”
Fritz admitted that most of the usual suspects had given him trouble, listing off his own awkward matchups. He continued: “Carlos is uncomfortable.
“When I played him at Laver Cup, it was really, really high level. Carlos had a really high level. It felt pretty unplayable. That didn’t feel good.
“US Open against Jannik was pretty uncomfortable. I felt not too uncomfortable in our match earlier this week. It felt fine.
“Demon, pretty uncomfortable. I think I’d have to say Novak is pretty uncomfortable being 0-10.”
It’s no surprise that three multi-Grand Slam champions and the current world No. 9 have been difficult opponents. But Fritz threw in one more unusual name – Yoshihito Nishioka.
“Oh, you know what is a weird one, is Yoshi just owns me. I got him once, but he’s not fun for me to play,” he laughed.
The world No. 72 has a 3-1 lifetime head-to-head record against Fritz. Nishioka won their first-ever clash in Los Cabos six years ago, coming through 7-6(3) 6-1.
The Japanese star got Fritz again a year later in Stockholm, this time winning 7-5 6-4. Fritz finally took a set when they played in Acapulco in 2019 but Nishioka stormed back to beat him 3-6 6-4 6-2.
Fritz’s only win came in their most recent contest at the 2022 Vienna Open but it was a tight one. He saved a match point to win 6-7(4) 7-6(7) 6-3.
Luckily, Fritz won’t have to try and beat Nishioka in Sunday’s final. He will either face Jannik Sinner or Casper Ruud. If it’s Sinner, the American will hope to get revenge after losing their group stage match 6-4 6-4.