We caught up with Taylor Fritz as he prepares for his upcoming trip to Perth, where he will represent Team USA with Jessica Pegula as the event's defending champions.
"It was a really fun week, it was such a good way to start last year with winning the event, winning something for your home country. I think it's a lot of fun, one, because everyone's excited to kind of be back after the off-season and be back playing, and it's also fun to be playing a team even with other people... because we're just so used to playing by ourselves all the time.
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"It was great for me. I felt like I ended the previous year playing well, and wanted to kind of have that confidence going into the next year. And I got to play a lot of good matches against top players and it for sure gave me a lot of confidence to start the year, that I was at a good level.
“(I) just like that energy of like having a team like on the bench cheering for you, having other people I guess relying on you to win. It's different; I think it pumps me up a lot more than when I'm just playing for myself. And then United Cup, Laver Cup, stuff like that – whether it be Team USA or Team World – it just feels like a very big deal and I can always get very excited and fired up to play in those situations. I feel like I've always played my best in team events.
"For me starting out (at United Cup 2024) it's going to be like straight into it with two really tough matches. Obviously Alex de Minaur, in Australia, is going to be tough. And then Cam Norrie and I have played so many times and had so many close matches. So yeah, I'm going to have to be prepared.
TICKETS: Catch Taylor Fritz in action for Team USA in Perth
“I think it's going to be different this year, the mixed doubles is going to play a much bigger part in it. Because with just three matches instead of five, I think the results can kind of just go any way. I'm definitely not going to let anybody else play (the mixed). I definitely plan on it being me and Jess when it comes down to it.
"We definitely are going back wanting to defend the title, and we kind of just have to take it one at a time. The main goal is to get ourselves out of the group (in Perth) first and then get ourselves to Sydney, and then we'll go from there.”
