Tennis News: Taylor Fritz, Roger Federer and Alexander Zverev

Taylor Fritz wanted to make a point of staying in the Olympic Village during his run at the 2024 Paris Olympics. He wanted to experience what it was like to be with lots of different athletes from different countries. The rooms were small, however, and the dorms were overly crowded. Many players chose to leave and stay in hotels. Fritz stayed.

To be fair, Fritz had an added reason for not leaving. He was rooming with his pal Tommy Paul in a small room with two twin beds. Paul was the neater of the players and tried to keep his space clean. Fritz tried hard to be more like Paul, but the challenge was real.

Paul and Fritz also played doubles together in the Games. They were able to take home bronze. In singles, Paul got a bit further - he made the quarterfinals - while Fritz was bounced out in the third round. The experience of the Olympics made it all worth it.

Taylor Fritz discusses Olympics experience and Alexander Zverev talks about how tournaments changed to help Roger Federer

Speaking with the Tennis Channel at the Cincinnati Open, Fritz talked about what staying in the Olympic Village was like. The American said, "I think it's a pretty cool experience, to just see all the other athletes. Whoever is around you is one of the best in whatever their respective field. I mean, the living conditions aren't the most amazing, you know. Like, Tommy and I split a room—the tiniest room with twin-sized beds. It's definitely not glamorous, but it's an experience."

Speaking of experiences, according to Alexander Zverev, lots of tournaments changed the way they did business a bit in order to please Roger Federer when Federer was still playing dominant tennis. Zverev is 27 years old but has been playing professionally for a decade and toured a bit with his older brother as well. Zverev got to know the players and events quite well.

Again, according to Zverev and there is no proof otherwise, tournaments would hope for a deep run by Federer at the events because that guaranteed more fans to be in the seats. To help Federer, tournaments would make their courts play a bit faster, aligning with Federer's surface of preference.

Zverev, also speaking with the Tennis Channel during the German's run at the Cincinnati Open, said, "I'm still from the generation of ten years ago, when we had some very fast hard courts, especially when Roger was still around. Obviously, tournaments liked him to go deep, so they made some very fast hard courts."

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