ATP Next Gen Finals: Interactive timeline of Taylor Fritz, American tennis' future star

How Fritz qualified Having seen his 2017 interrupted due to injury, he came out all guns blazing in 2018. He won the ATP Challenger title at Newport Beach, besides making it to the final at New Caledonia challenger event. He then broke into the top 50 in the world ranking in October. Fritz’s 2018 in 280 characters Rank at start of 2018: World No 104. Current rank: World No 47. Biggest scalp of the season In a year where he stunned Jack Sock twice — first at Houston in the quarters, when Sock was World No 16; and then a month later in Lyon, when Sock was World No 15 — Fritz’s biggest scalp has to be his upset victory over then World No 12 Sam Querrey at the Delray Beach event. The win was poignant because Fritz had dropped the first set, but roared back to win the match in three tense sets. One thing you didn’t know about Fritz Taylor’s mother, Kathy, reached the World No 10 rank in the WTA in July 1977. She made it to the quarters at three Grand Slams — twice at the French Open (1977 and 1978) and once at the US Open (1978). Interestingly, Fritz’s wife, Raquel Pedraza, has played in all four junior Grand Slams. Why is Fritz the NextGen Ever since he became a pro, the California native has been making waves on the tennis circuit. His run to the final of the Memphis Open, made him the you test American to reach a final since Michael Chang in 1989. When he made it to his first ATP final in his third tournament, he did so ahead of Jimmy Connors (who needed 10 tournaments to do so), Andy Roddick (10), Andre Agassi (11) and John McEnroe (17). For the rest of the profiles of contenders at the ATP Next Gen Finals 2018, click here .