With a string of ATP wins under his belt and the release of Netflix’s ‘Break Point’, all eyes are on US tennis star Taylor Fritz.
Famed for his suave sense of style, the 25-year-old is poised to pass his highest ranking of world no.5 as he steams through the season with energy, focus, and determination.
Muscle and Health aced some time out with Taylor Fritz to get the low-down on his impeccable regime for success.
What are your pre and post-match rituals? Do you meditate before a match or are you someone who goes into a game on a high energy level?
Before a match, I work with my physiotherapist where we do one hour of table work then 30 minutes of muscle activation and dynamic exercise to prepare to go on the court.
I like to go into a match with a high energy level, and I have a rap playlist that’s my go-to before a match.
After the hard work is done, do you go to celebrate with a cheat meal and your beautiful girlfriend, or are you straight into working with your coach on your next game plan?
After a tournament, I think it’s important for me to relax a bit and allow myself to eat things I wouldn’t typically eat while training or before a match. I would say my go-to cheat meal choices are a classic burger and fries or a sub sandwich. I think giving myself that flexibility helps me stay motivated during those times that are really important for me to stick to my diet.
Mentally, it must be so difficult to perform in front of millions of people. Does the audience give you a buzz and fuel your fire or does it make you nervous? And do you feel as if your game is different when you’re at a tournament compared to when you’re training in private? For example, if you’re not the audience favorite, does this throw you off?
I like to go into a match with high energy, and the crowd plays a major role in pumping me up.
All the time I spend training in private prepares me to be confident and let it rip at a tournament in front of a crowd. My passion comes from the sport itself, and I’ve had that ever since I started playing tennis. But, the fans and spectators contribute to the feelings I get when I’m out there. Whether I’m the crowd favorite or not, the audience motivates me.
Tell us what you eat! Calories, macros, and daily meal breakdown, please. Also, tell us what you consume before and after a match.
When I wake up in the morning, the first thing I usually do is grab a cold glass of water to kickstart my system. For breakfast, I typically have oatmeal, or I make a smoothie with Optimum Nutrition Gold Standard 100% Whey protein powder. If I’m in a rush, I’ll eat something simple like egg white bites. I don’t usually eat a lot for breakfast, but I always make sure to have protein of some kind, and I never start my day without it.
After breakfast, I head to the gym, then onto the tennis court to get a workout in. After that workout, I make a chocolate protein shake, which gives me about 40 grams of protein, and I usually have some beef sticks too.
Since I’m a bigger guy, I burn a lot of calories every day. For example, in just one match, I can burn up to 4,000 calories or more. I try to achieve 0.7—1 gram of protein per pound of body weight, and being 195 pounds, it’s almost impossible to ingest close to 200 grams of protein just from food, which is where Gold Standard Whey protein powder comes in, since it gives me 24 grams of premium protein per serving and helps me meet those goals.
For lunch, I decide what I’m having based on how much energy I’ve used. If I’ve burned a lot of calories already, I go for a salad loaded with double the meat. Or if I had a tough workout, then I’ll usually go for a burrito bowl.
After lunch, I head to another tennis practice, and then I refuel again with another protein shake made with Optimum Nutrition Gold Standard Whey. The chocolate flavor is my favorite and helps satisfy my sweet tooth.
During tournaments, I eat a lot of steak in the evenings and before matches, or I go with white rice and plain chicken – no sauces or seasoning added.
Then at dinnertime, I like to keep it simple with chicken or steak and sometimes pasta, but usually rice. My overall focus when planning what I eat in the day is balance and making sure that I eat enough to match the amount of energy I am burning.
Overall, I don’t try to take a strict approach when it comes to calorie intake. I monitor my body weight to make adjustments on the fly from week to week.
Can you tell us about your training? How many hours per day and days per week do you spend on the court, and what do you do to support this in the gym or on the court?
Since tennis is nearly a year-round sport, I focus on maintaining the strength that I have in off weeks and pushing for gains during the on weeks. My workout routine varies depending on what I’m doing, whether I’m training or heading into a competition. But, I’m a creature of habit, so I like to practice at the same time each day and keep a consistent routine.
Typically, my workouts start at 8 or 9 a.m. Since the core, shoulders, and legs are the base for tennis movements and help prevent injuries, those are the areas I focus on and work out the most. If I’m further along in a tournament, I’ll do shorter workout sessions and focus on functional exercises to support my muscles. Matches can sometimes go for four hours, making them workouts themselves, so I like to focus more on recovery in my gym sessions during tournaments.
My amount of time on the court varies as it depends on the week. Before a match, I’m on the court for 30 minutes then I go into the match. My training days range between two to three hours of hitting on the court. In training weeks, I do one hour in the gym and two to three hours of tennis to simulate the best-of-five Grand Slam training volume. During an off week, I attempt to get somewhere from 11 to 16 hours of workload in and that tapers before events.
Being a Netflix star is a whole different game. Does the celebrity element to your success make you feel more accomplished or is it all about the sport for you? Would you consider, for example, playing yourself alongside your girlfriend Morgan in a biographical movie?
It’s the sport for me, along with all the growth and professional achievements that give me that feeling of accomplishment and fuel me to keep it going. The docuseries was a great behind-the-scenes look into our world, especially for people who are newer to tennis and were curious about the sport and the players, which attracted so many new fans.
As far as playing myself in a movie and stepping into that realm, I like to keep an open mind when opportunities come, especially after the show. But that’s likely something I’ll leave to those professionals—and I can enjoy watching that with the rest of the world.
