Minutes after finishing a four-hour youth coaching session in San Diego, Chris Numbers — who coached Taylor Fritz as a freshman during his lone season of prep tennis at Torrey Pines High School — offered his thoughts on what Fritz must do to defeat world No. 2 Carlos Alcaraz in Friday’s Wimbledon semifinal.
“He’s got to stay on his front foot, for sure,” Numbers told The Coast News. “He’s got to stay inside the court; he’s got to take it to Alcaraz. He’s got to have a high percentage of first serves. If he can keep Alcaraz on his back foot and not let him dictate, Taylor can dictate.”
Fritz himself shared a similar perspective in February during an interview with Amy Lundy Dahl of Tennis Connected, breaking down how his strategy shifts depending on the playing conditions.
“It just depends on the surface, the balls, the speed of the court,” Fritz said. “If it’s in a slow condition, I can’t go backhand line to [Alcaraz] because [he’d] run over and hurt me. It won’t generate enough. If it’s a faster condition, I will look to come out of that rally, be a bit more aggressive because the backhand line risk will actually be worth it. Someone like Carlos, backhand-to-backhand’s a bit better for me.”
Fritz, ranked No. 5 in the world, came up short Friday morning in a hard-fought semifinal. Alcaraz advanced to his third consecutive Wimbledon final after a five-set victory.
Alcaraz earned the 6-4, 5-7, 6-3, 7-6 (8-6) win in a match that lasted nearly three hours, showcasing a dominant serve that won him 88% of first-serve points and allowing Fritz just one break of serve throughout the contest.
That lone break came at a pivotal moment, enabling Fritz to take the second set, but Alcaraz responded with a near-perfect serving performance in the third set, winning 94% of his service points to regain control.
Fritz battled fiercely in the fourth set, even holding multiple set points during the tiebreak after gaining a mini-break over Alcaraz. Still, the 22-year-old from Spain staved off defeat, regained momentum, and closed out the match to deny Fritz his second career major final appearance.
Fritz, a Rancho Santa Fe native, reached the semis on Thursday after winning five matches on the grass courts of the All England Club. He battled through a tough first-round match that stretched over two days and overcame a resilient Karen Khachanov in the quarterfinals, closing out the win in a tense fourth-set tiebreak.
The 27-year-old is now the first American man to reach the Wimbledon semifinals since John Isner in 2018.
Numbers, a longtime friend of Fritz’s father, former professional player Guy Fritz, also played professionally himself and has coached in over 49 countries.
He recalled Fritz’s freshman year at Torrey Pines, saying, “Just his tennis IQ, even at 15 years old, was off the charts. It was so much more advanced than all the other kids.”
Numbers added, “He was a great team player. He didn’t come in with some crazy attitude that he was going to be playing No. 1. We made him work for it, and then obviously the captains said he needed to be playing No. 1, and he did.”
During his freshman year, Fritz won the CIF singles title in the San Diego Section. However, just a few months into his sophomore year, he switched to online schooling to focus full-time on competing in International Tennis Federation (ITF) junior events, accelerating his path toward professional tennis.
“I mean, if you win as a freshman, there’s no reason to come back,” Numbers said. “Most kids win junior or senior year, then go play collegiately, but Taylor was already playing junior Grand Slams and international tournaments. It just made sense for him to take that path.”
Watching Fritz compete at Wimbledon on TV, it’s his physical development that has been most striking to Numbers.
“He was so thin, okay? I don’t want to say scrawny, but he was slight as a freshman. Now, he’s put on so much — his footwork has improved drastically, his serve has improved, and he’s just hitting the ball ahead of himself more because of his physical development and overall game evolution,” Numbers said.
Reflecting on the arc of Fritz’s career, Numbers said the signs of something special were always there.
“Can you really say at 15 years old, ‘Hey, he’s going to be top five in the world?’ Of course not. But what stood out was his strategic understanding of tennis — way beyond his peers. So, while the success is impressive, it’s not totally surprising given how advanced he was even then.”
