NEW YORK — Kathy May was not thinking great things about her son’s prospects as she watched Taylor Fritz battle Frances Tiafoe in the U.S. Open semifinals.
“I thought Frances was playing amazingly well, and I didn’t know how Taylor was going to change that,” May said in the Saturday afternoon calm before the storm of Sunday’s men’s final.
“If Frances kept playing as well as he was playing, I don’t think Taylor was going to win the match.”
If that doesn’t sound like the unshakeable and unconditional support of a typical tennis mom, then understand that May, 68, is not a typical tennis mom. She was a three-time Grand Slam quarterfinalist in the 1970s, including at the 1978 U.S. Open, when she lost to Wendy Turnbull in three sets. The next year, Billie Jean King took her out in straight sets, 6-3, 6-0 on a stadium court.
Kathy May (right) plays doubles with Tracy Austin in Tokyo in 1978. (Katsumi Kasahara / Associated Press)
“Taylor handled those situations way better than I did,” she said. “I felt completely overwhelmed.”
May will be close to the action on Sunday when Fritz plays Jannik Sinner in the men’s final and tries to become the first American man to win the title since Andy Roddick in 2003. Already, Fritz, 26, is the first American man to reach the final since 2006.
It’s a nerve-wracking experience being on Arthur Ashe Stadium, she said, but not nearly as bad as watching on television. She likes being able to sense how her son is experiencing a match, what he’s thinking and why he is hitting certain shots — however painful that may be.
Some of it doesn’t really come through on television.
May doesn’t coach her son, but when she is in the player’s box, she does plenty of chatting with Fritz’s coaches, Michael Russell and, when he is around, Paul Annacone. She also talks to them plenty outside of tournaments. She likes knowing about and chiming in on how his game is evolving and what he should focus on next. When they tell her, she always asks for an explanation.
She said they are almost always on the same page, and she tries to let them talk tennis with her son, rather than her.
“I don’t think it’s good for him to hear from too many people,” she said.
May is a seven-time WTA Tour title winner, who cracked the top 10 in 1977. Fritz’s father was a tour player as well. She said her son probably gets his big serve from his dad and his solid groundstrokes from her.
Sometimes, a parent can’t resist sharing a little well-learned wisdom. She might remind him to use his drop shot. It doesn’t land all that well.
“I’ve learned my lesson,” she said.
May was in the crowd for her son’s semifinal against Frances Tiafoe. (Jamie Squire / Getty Images)
It took years of nudging — from her and his coaches — for Fritz to start coming into the front of the court to try to close off points. He is more comfortable on the baseline, but he is starting to experiment with moving forward. But May said she is most impressed with his mental progress.
Fritz rarely explodes in the middle of a match, because he has come to accept that he can solve more problems on a tennis court if he isn’t riled up. He’s not like Novak Djokovic, she said, who can get angry and play better. Not Fritz.
She said the credit for this goes to the coaches, who talk through every possible circumstance and game scenario he might encounter before he steps onto the court. That allows him to focus on himself, rather than the atmospherics around him.
Tiafoe had the crowd on his side? So what?
May retired at 24, tired of the lonely road that tennis players had to endure, before the era of teams and coaches. Now, 44 years later, it’s Taylor’s turn. Her one regret? “I wish I could have enjoyed it more,” she said.
She has told him to remember to enjoy moments like Sunday. Anyone who knows Fritz knows that winning titles goes a long way toward his being able to enjoy life on tour. She understands that, and she takes little for granted.
Now, at what point was she sure that Tiafoe was done Friday?
Was it when her son won the fourth set to draw even, stopping Tiafoe’s momentum? No.
How about when he went up two service breaks in the fifth set? No.
“When he broke Frances to go up 5-1 in the fifth set, that’s when I knew,” she said.
Not exactly a typical tennis mom’s response. Expect nothing less.
(Top photo: Tim Clayton / Corbis via Getty Images)
