Novak Djokovic was forced to retire injured during the Six Kings Slam third-place match against Taylor Fritz after losing the first set of their match in Riyadh
Taylor Fritz declined to predict the Six Kings Slam winner after clinching third place in the exhibition tennis tournament. The American emerged victorious after Novak Djokovic had to retire following their exhausting 76-minute first set.
Fritz triumphed 7-6, but he was the first to play on Saturday rather than in the final, having lost 6-4, 6-2 against Carlos Alcaraz on Thursday. Jannik Sinner dispatched Djokovic just as swiftly, winning their semi-final 6-4, 6-2 to set up the final everyone wanted.
When asked who he thought would win the final, Fritz responded during an on-court interview, “Don’t do that to me. It’s really tough to say.
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“What I will say when I played Carlos, it felt very, very tough. I definitely want to see what Sinner does to deal with that, because I didn’t have the answers.”
Fritz also expanded on his experience of playing against Djokovic: “It’s amazing. It’s crazy, all these guys that I grew up watching dominate tennis, and I get to play with them.
“It’s not like this is anything new; Novak’s been beating me for a very long time, probably at least the last eight years. It’s always a pleasure to share the court with the best players of all time.”
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He also expressed sympathy for his opponent having to retire hurt. “That was really physical,” Fritz said.
“What happens is you get into those really long games, and the ball starts to wear out and get so huge. To the point where it’s so hard to get a free point on the serve, or a winner, so it’s playing the long points and games.
“It makes everything slower, longer, it’s such a tough set, and at the end of it, conditions just got so slow. We were playing long rallies, back-to-back-to-back, just fighting for every point, so it was brutal.”
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