The life of a professional tennis player can be extremely demanding, often involving frequent travel and extended periods away from the family. This can be very challenging for the players. In May 2024, Novak Djokovic expressed how much he misses his children while he is on the Tour. He revealed, “little Novak” inside him is “still so hungry for more,” but having said that, he also claimed that it’s hurting him “more and more” to leave his children as he gets older. Even another tennis mom, Naomi Osaka, spoke about how “tough” it is to juggle her professional life with motherhood. America’s Taylor Townsend had once revealed, “I cry many nights when I’m away from AJ.” Recently, another American, Taylor Fritz, was also spotted talking about this issue in his post-match interview.
After beating the Frenchman Giovanni Mpetshi Perricard in a five-set thriller in the first round of the 2025 Wimbledon Championships, Fritz secured yet another five-set triumph over Canada’s Gabriel Diallo in the second round. He defeated the Canadian by 3-6,6-3,7-6(0),4-6,6-3. With this victory, he has now become just the third top-five seed in the Open Era to reach the Men’s Singles third round at Wimbledon via two five-set victories after Goran Ivanisevic (in 1993) and Stefanos Tsitsipas (in 2023).
Following this match, Taylor Fritz came up to attend the post-match press conference. During that press conference, he was asked to reflect a bit on how difficult it is to manage things between fatherhood and his professional life. In reply to that, Fritz said, “Yeah, I mean I wish the season were shorter for a lot of reasons. I mean that’s big one I mean everytime I get to go home, I try to do the best I can with maximizing the time I can spend with my son and I wish it was an easier situation where I could bring him with me on the Tour, but there are things that is preventing that from happening. So yeah, I mean I wish there was an easy for, there was an easy answer for, but there’s not.”
He further added, “I just need to do the best to maximize my time when I’m not in a tournament and also just FaceTime calls when I’m on the road.” Taylor Fritz was married to Raquel Pedraza from 2016 to 2019, and the couple welcomed their son Jordan in 2017. However, despite their divorce in 2019, Fritz has not left a chance to make his son realize how special he is to him. Even just a couple of days ago, in an interview with Haute Living, Taylor Fritz admitted, “I think [having a kid] taught me a lot of lessons about time management. I have to juggle all these different things.”
Then, even in the last month, during another interview with The Guardian, he claimed, “I can’t be there as much with my son. I’d love to be full-time with him, and so I’m softer and can’t help but spoil my son. My dad was the opposite.” Fritz is often seen sharing glimpses of his fun moments with his son on social media. In October 2024, he shared a video clip where he was seen playing a basketball match inside their room. A few years ago, during Christmas, he shared a picture of his son, Jordan, holding a Hot Wheels set beside the tree.
For all the #TaylorFritz haters in regards to his son, he wishes he could bring him to tournaments but there are other things preventing it. Everyone makes assumptions but in reality none of us know the arrangements he & his ex have set. pic.twitter.com/fyI3UDEvTk
— Lauren S (@lalauren18) July 1, 2025
So, there are plenty of moments like these that show us how much he loves spending time with his son. But coming back to his tennis, just like every other American tennis fan, his son would also want him to lift a Grand Slam title. What are his chances at Wimbledon, though?
Andy Roddick’s bold prediction for Taylor Fritz at the 2025 Wimbledon
Taylor Fritz entered at SW19 as the only man to pick up two grass titles (Boss Open and Eastbourne Open) this season. He has now won nine of his last ten matches. Absolutely phenomenal, amid a series of major upsets at the 2025 Wimbledon. Fritzz, who last week won the title in Eastbourne, has played back-to-back five-setters consisting of a total of 109 games. It’s also the third-most amount of games a male player at Wimbledon has played through two rounds since 2022. What did he say after his win in the second round?
After the match, Taylor Fritz said, “That’s an incredibly hard match. In the four sets I’ve lost, I really don’t think there’s much I did wrong at all. And I kind of felt like that’s the way the match was going. I was going to have to play near-perfect when I got my opportunities. Really happy to get through.” Next up for him will be either Alejandro Davidovich Fokina or Botic van de Zandschulp. How far can Fritz go at the 2025 Wimbledon Championships, though?
Well, according to Andy Roddick, “[Taylor] Fritz, going into Wimbledon as the number four seed is a lot different than Taylor Fritz going into the French Open as the number four seed, where we’re just guessing on an entire bracket. Taylor is legit good on grass. He could easily be in the last weekend of Wimbledon.” Fritz’s best record at Wimbledon was reaching the QFs in 2022 and 2024. Do you think he can go a few steps ahead of that this season? Follow the Championships in real-time with EssentiallySports’ Live Blog updates.
The post Wimbledon: Tennis Dad Taylor Fritz Reveals the Dark Sides of Being a Professional Athlete appeared first on EssentiallySports.