Taylor Fritz analyzed his loss to Andrey Rublev in the semifinals of the Madrid Open and stated that the clay density on the central court was different from the other courts in the tournament. The world No. 13 played on all three stadiums at Caja Magica and considered the conditions of the main stadium to be slower.
Rublev took only 72 minutes to reach his fifth final of a Masters 1000 tournament in his career. Fritz started the match with an early break, but he couldn’t break his opponent’s serve again and ended his journey in Madrid being soundly defeated by the Russian.
The American played his first two rounds against Luciano Darderi and Sebastian Baez on Court 3, both with easy straight-set victories. In the round of 16, he moved to the Arantxa Sanchez Stadium, the second in importance, and also secured the win against Hubert Hurkacz with a score of 7-6, 6-4.
His subsequent matches were on the Court Manolo Santana in the quarterfinals against Francisco Cerundolo (6-1, 3-6, 6-3), and two days later, he fell to the Russian world No. 8 with a score of 4-6, 3-6.
“When I was playing on I guess Arantxa Sanchez [Vicario] and Stadium 3. I feel like, for sure, it’s faster in there it’s bouncing higher in there. Center court’s definitely slower and it was pretty slippery as well,” Fritz said.
