LONDON — Luxury fashion brands are testing the waters with tennis stars as the sport’s popularity grows, but Boss has been playing the game for longer than most. The German brand has already built up a portfolio of players including Matteo Berrettini, Noma Noha Akugue, Ella Seidel and Taylor Fritz, the newest member of the stable.
“I’m obviously super pumped and excited about the partnership. I kind of chased after it. I feel like I really wanted to make this happen after seeing a lot of what they were doing in the tennis space,” the number-one U.S. male tennis player said in an interview.
This week, Fritz will take part in the Boss Open, otherwise known as the Stuttgart Open, which takes place in the southwest German city. The other players participating in the competition include Ben Shelton, Frances Tiafoe, Andy Murray and Alexander Zverev.
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For Fritz, the partnership with Boss is greater than just a fashion deal, it’s a way of raising his international profile. “I want to make sure that I look good on court, and in these pictures that [document] the big moments of my career, when I’m celebrating titles or winning tournaments. I want to look and feel good. It’s really important stuff,” he said.
On the court, Fritz will be switching between black and white tennis kits, both with the German brand’s logo printed subtlety on the chest.
“I really love what we’ve been doing with the clothes on the court because it’s just very classy and simple with a fitted look. But off court, I’m into the smart-casual style. Being with Boss now gives me a lot of really great options to expand my off-court style,” he said.
Unlike his counterparts, Fritz doesn’t believe in superstitions or lucky medallions and instead focuses on routines ahead of his matches.
“I’m more routine based. If I did things in a certain way the night before, such as where I ate, and I played well [the next day], then I might want to continue doing that for the whole week of the tournament. I just like to repeat, but there’s not something I do every single time during a match or before,” added Fritz.
Fritz, who currently ranks as the world’s number 12, and number one for the U.S. on the ATP tennis list, grew up with parents who played tennis professionally. His mother, Kathy May, was a former top 10 player, and his father, Guy Henry Fritz, also played professional tennis.
Fritz doesn’t recall his first memory of playing tennis as he was always surrounded by the sport. “It was impossible for me not to start playing,” he said.
Fritz starred in the Netflix’s documentary series “Break Point,” which follows professional tennis players in their day-to-day lives and tracks the events behind the biggest tournaments such as the French Open, Indian Wells Masters, Wimbledon and U.S. Open.
“It definitely felt weird watching myself, but when we were shooting, I didn’t really think too much about it because I was just always very focused on what I was doing and it felt more like they were just following [me]. I was just trying to be myself, and go about my regular day-to-day playing tennis,” he said.
In the series, he also opens up about the challenges of raising his son, Jordan, while being on the road all the time.
“I had the mentality that I was just going to be me, and not worry about how I’d be perceived or how I’d come off because that would be exhausting to do,” Fritz said.
As with any sportsman, the 26-year-old is extremely competitive, and he doesn’t hide it. “I’ve always been a very competitive person, and it’s the goals I set for myself — when you’ve dedicated as much time to something as long as I have, there’s really nothing else to do, you have to take it all the way,” he said.
“There are no secrets or shortcuts. [Nobody can] magically tell you something that will make you become better all of a sudden. It’s just really all about working hard for a long time, slowly and consistently improving,” he added.
The tennis landscape is evolving quickly as the old guard retires. Eight out of the 10 top players in the ATP are under the age of 30, although the 37-year-old Serbian player Novak Djokovic still reigns supreme.
“When I started, we had three of the best players of all time [Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal and Djokovic] playing at the same time,” he said, adding that tennis is also becoming a bigger part of popular culture.
The recent movie “Challengers” starring Zendaya and Josh O’Connor was a critical and commercial success that showed a personal side to the players off-court.