NEW YORK (AP) — As personally satisfying and career-boosting as Taylor Fritz's runner-up showing at the 2024 U.S. Open was, he is attempting to keep that out of his mind as he goes back to Flushing Meadows. Instead, he wants to remain rooted in the present.
“I'm honestly trying not to think about last year there,” Fritz said in an interview with The Associated Press. “I want to do everything the same as I did it last time — which is not looking ahead in the draw, not thinking about the end of the tournament."
When play begins Sunday at the final Grand Slam tournament of the season, Fritz should have every reason to expect big things from himself, just as American tennis fans are bound to expect big things from the 27-year-old Californian who has produced quite a 12-month stretch.
Fritz has reached a career-best No. 4 in the rankings, behind only No. 1 Jannik Sinner, No. 2 Carlos Alcaraz and No. 3 Alexander Zverev. In addition to making it to the final in New York before losing to Sinner — the first appearance in a title match for a U.S. man at any Grand Slam tournament since 2009 — Fritz also was beaten by Sinner in the final of the ATP Finals in Italy in November and by Alcaraz in the semifinals at Wimbledon last month.
“Against a player like that, if you don’t show up, and you don’t play with your front foot by going forward, applying pressure, and you let him dictate,” Gabriel Diallo said about Fritz after losing to him at the All England Club, “the result is going to be the one that happened today.”
A big serve, big forehand and increasingly effective return game have elevated Fritz toward the top of men's tennis, even if he — like many others — hasn't quite broken through for a major championship in this era of dominance by Sinner and Alcaraz.
Fritz is well aware, of course, that no man from his country has won a major singles trophy since Andy Roddick at the 2003 U.S. Open.
“I don’t feel like I have a responsibility to do it — or I don’t feel like people are counting on me or anything. I think all the pressure that I feel is just the pressure that I’m putting on myself,” Fritz said. “I’m a competitor, I’ve given my whole life to playing tennis, and that’s what I really want, is to win a Slam. So the pressure’s definitely coming from just me wanting it, and not from anywhere else.”
His coach, Michael Russell, thinks part of Fritz's better results at majors has come from being more fit and improving his endurance, which allows him to believe in his ability to play lengthy matches.
He won a pair of five-setters in the first two rounds at Wimbledon, for example.
“There’s still quite a few things he can improve — and he’s willing to do that. He’s very stubborn, which makes him a great player, but he’s also been more absorbent and willing to work on some things,” Russell said. “Going deeper in these events breeds confidence. Getting new experiences and seeing, ‘Oh, wait, my hard work is paying off.’ It’s a snowball effect.”
The memory that stands out the most for Fritz from last year's trip to New York was earning a Grand Slam final debut by eliminating countryman — and friend — Frances Tiafoe.
“Feelings like that,” Fritz said about winning his first major semifinal, “are the reasons why I like to compete and why I like to play tennis. How good those moments feel.”
Still, that doesn't mean he's pulled up footage of that match, or any other, from those two weeks.
Not yet, anyway.
“If I feel like things aren’t really clicking, then at that point, maybe I’d go back and watch some matches, just to see what it was looking like and what was working for me,” Fritz said. “Kind of try and jog my memory a little bit.”
FILE - Taylor Fritz, of the United States, holds the finalist trophy after losing to Jannik Sinner, of Italy, in the men's singles final of the U.S. Open tennis championships, Sept. 8, 2024, in New York. (AP Photo/Kirsty Wigglesworth, file)
CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) — An ailing astronaut returned to Earth with three others on Thursday, ending their space station mission more than a month early in NASA’s first medical evacuation.
SpaceX guided the capsule to a middle-of-the-night splashdown in the Pacific near San Diego, less than 11 hours after the astronauts exited the International Space Station.
“It’s so good to be home,” said NASA astronaut Zena Cardman, the capsule commander.
It was an unexpected finish to a mission that began in August and left the orbiting lab with only one American and two Russians on board. NASA and SpaceX said they would try to move up the launch of a fresh crew of four; liftoff is currently targeted for mid-February.
Cardman and NASA’s Mike Fincke were joined on the return by Japan’s Kimiya Yui and Russia’s Oleg Platonov. Officials have refused to identify the astronaut who had the health problem or explain what happened, citing medical privacy.
While the astronaut was stable in orbit, NASA wanted them back on Earth as soon as possible to receive proper care and diagnostic testing. The entry and splashdown required no special changes or accommodations, officials said, and the recovery ship had its usual allotment of medical experts on board. It was not immediately known when the astronauts would fly from California to their home base in Houston. Platonov’s return to Moscow was also unclear.
NASA stressed repeatedly over the past week that this was not an emergency. The astronaut fell sick or was injured on Jan. 7, prompting NASA to call off the next day’s spacewalk by Cardman and Fincke, and ultimately resulting in the early return. It was the first time NASA cut short a spaceflight for medical reasons. The Russians had done so decades ago.
The space station has gotten by with three astronauts before, sometimes even with just two. NASA said it will be unable to perform a spacewalk, even for an emergency, until the arrival of the next crew, which has two Americans, one French and one Russian astronaut.
The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Department of Science Education and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. The AP is solely responsible for all content.
Roscosmos cosmonaut Oleg Platonov is helped out of the SpaceX Dragon Endeavour spacecraft onboard the SpaceX recovery ship SHANNON after they re-entered the earth in a middle-of-the-night splashdown near San Diego, Calif., Thursday, Jan. 15, 2026. (NASA via AP)
JAXA (Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency) astronaut Kimiya Yui is helped out of the SpaceX Crew-11 capsule after they re-entered the earth in a middle-of-the-night splashdown near San Diego, Calif., Thursday, Jan. 15, 2026. (NASA via AP)
NASA astronaut Mike Fincke is helped out of the SpaceX Crew-11 capsule after they re-entered the earth in a middle-of-the-night splashdown near San Diego, Calif., Thursday, Jan. 15, 2026. (NASA via AP)
NASA astronaut Zena Cardman is helped out of the SpaceX Crew-11 capsule after they re-entered the earth in a middle-of-the-night splashdown near San Diego, Calif., Thursday, Jan. 15, 2026. (NASA via AP)
This screengrab from video provided by NASA shows the NASA's SpaceX Crew-11 capsule being taken into the recovery vessel after crew members re entered the earth in a middle-of-the-night splashdown near San Diego, Calif., Thursday, Jan. 15, 2026. (NASA via AP)
This screengrab from video provided by NASA shows NASA astronaut Mike Fincke getting helped out of the SpaceX Crew-11 capsule after they re-entered the earth in a middle-of-the-night splashdown near San Diego, Calif., Thursday, Jan. 15, 2026. (NASA via AP)
This screengrab from video provided by NASA shows NASA Japanese astronaut Kimiya Yui being helped out of the SpaceX Crew-11 capsule after they re-entered the earth in a middle-of-the-night splashdown near San Diego, Calif., Thursday, Jan. 15, 2026. (NASA via AP)
This screengrab from video provided by NASA shows Russian astronaut Oleg Platonov being helped out of the SpaceX Crew-11 capsule after they re-entered the earth in a middle-of-the-night splashdown near San Diego, Calif., Thursday, Jan. 15, 2026. (NASA via AP)
Roscosmos cosmonaut Oleg Platonov, left, NASA astronauts Mike Fincke, Zena Cardman, and JAXA (Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency) astronaut Kimiya Yui are seen inside the SpaceX Dragon Endeavour spacecraft onboard the SpaceX recovery ship SHANNON shortly after having landed in the Pacific Ocean off the coast of Long Beach, Calif., Thursday, Jan. 15, 2026. (NASA via AP)
This screengrab from video provided by NASA shows NASA astronaut Zena Cardman being helped out of the SpaceX Crew-11 capsule after they re-entered the earth in a middle-of-the-night splashdown near San Diego, Calif., Thursday, Jan. 15, 2026. (NASA via AP)
This screengrab from video provided by NASA TV shows the SpaceX Dragon departing from the International Space Station shortly after undocking with four NASA Crew-11 members inside on Wednesday, Jan. 14, 2026. (NASA via AP)
This photo provided by NASA shows clockwise from bottom left are, NASA astronaut Mike Fincke, Roscosmos cosmonaut Oleg Platonov, NASA astronaut Zena Cardman, and JAXA (Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency) astronaut Kimiya Yui gathering for a crew portrait wearing their Dragon pressure suits during a suit verification check inside the International Space Station’s Kibo laboratory module, Wednesday, Jan. 14, 2026. (NASA via AP)
This screengrab from video provided by NASA shows recovery vessels approaching the NASA's SpaceX Crew-11 capsule to evacuate one of the crew members after they re-entered the earth in a middle-of-the-night splashdown near San Diego, Calif., Thursday, Jan. 15, 2026. (NASA via AP)
This screengrab from video provided by NASA shows the NASA's SpaceX Crew-11 members re entering the earth in a middle-of-the-night splashdown near San Diego, Calif., Thursday, Jan. 15, 2026. (NASA via AP)
This screengrab from video provided by NASA shows the NASA's SpaceX Crew-11 members re entering the earth in a middle-of-the-night splashdown near San Diego, Calif., Thursday, Jan. 15, 2026. (NASA via AP)
