Stubbs says Fritz “will not win a major” unless he fixes his net game

Rennae Stubbs has spent years arguing that Taylor Fritz’s net game is holding him back. One missed volley in Paris has given her the clearest example yet, and a blunt verdict: fix it, or the Grand Slam titles will not come.

The point that cost a place in Turin

Fritz was a point away from beating Carlos Alcaraz in straight sets in their Paris Masters quarter-final last week. On his second match point he struck a heavy forehand into the Alcaraz backhand, and the Spaniard replied with a floated slice that barely cleared the net. Fritz let it bounce. Alcaraz won the point with his next shot and went on to win the match in three sets.

The cost was considerable. Victory would have taken Fritz past Rafael Jodar in the race for the ATP Finals; instead Jodar took the last of the eight places in Turin. Alcaraz went on to win the title, beating Ben Shelton in the final.

Stubbs: “It is impossible to lose that point”

Stubbs, the former doubles world No. 1 who later coached Serena Williams, revisited the moment on The Rennae Stubbs Tennis Podcast. “How in God’s green earth you don’t run forward and take that backhand volley out of the air? You could have hit that backhand volley anywhere in the court, and you win the match,” she said, as reported by Tennis365.

She said she had watched the match with Lisa Raymond, her former doubles partner, and that both reacted with disbelief. She later went back to the footage and paused it at the moment the ball crossed the net, noting that Alcaraz was out beyond the doubles alley. “It is impossible to lose that point, therefore the match, if you run forward and just hit it out of the air,” she said.

Then came the wider claim. “I have said it for years and years and years: the reason why Taylor Fritz will not win a major, unless Carlos [Alcaraz] and [Jannik] Sinner are out of the draw, if he does not improve his net game.” She finished on a note that was as much frustration as criticism: “Taylor, fix your net game, and you can win a major. It’s upsetting.”

A fair critique, or one point made to carry too much?

Stubbs’s argument has two parts, and they deserve to be judged separately. The first, about the match point itself, is hard to dispute. A volleyer of her generation would have closed the net on instinct; a modern baseliner hesitated, and the hesitation was decisive.

The second part, that this is the reason Fritz has no major, is a bigger claim. Fritz’s game is built on serve and forehand, and it has taken him to a US Open final in 2024 and a career-high ranking of No. 4. The players who have kept him from the biggest titles are the two Stubbs names herself: Alcaraz and Sinner. Her qualifier, “unless Carlos [Alcaraz] and [Jannik] Sinner are out of the draw”, concedes that the main obstacle is the quality of the opposition rather than one technical gap.

Yet that is precisely her point. Against Alcaraz in particular, matches are often decided by a handful of moments in the forecourt. Stubbs noted that Alcaraz produced one outstanding volley after another on big points while Fritz did not. If the margins against the top two are that fine, the transition game is where a player of Fritz’s size and power can find them.

The window that did not open

The context makes the criticism sharper. Alcaraz missed the French Open and Wimbledon with a wrist injury, and Sinner sat out the US Open with a knee problem. It was a season in which the door was unusually open. Alexander Zverev walked through it, winning in Paris and New York, and is now world No. 1. Fritz did not.

At 29, Fritz is not out of time, but the number of realistic chances is not growing. Stubbs’s view is that the improvement she wants is specific and coachable, which is a more hopeful message than the headline suggests. She is not saying he lacks the game for a major; she is saying he lacks one part of it, and that the part is fixable.

Whether Fritz and his team agree will become clear in Australia. For now, Fritz watches Turin from outside the field of eight, with an off-season to think about one ball he let bounce.

For more on that Paris final, read what Alcaraz said about Shelton before it, and for the Turin field Fritz just missed, see our ATP Finals 2026 explainer.