Ranch Santa Fe’s Taylor Fritz seeks back-to-back gold balls

Taylor Fritz, a graduate of R. Roger Rowe School with highest academic honors, recently won the National Clay Court Doubles Championships in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., with partner Billy Rowe from Coronado. The National Clay Court is one of the top three national tournaments of the year. The duo, who were seeded 12th, swept the field of 64 teams. In the semi-finals they beat the #2-seeded team of Alex Phillips and Abhin Sharma, both from Georgia, 6-3, 6-3. In the finals they beat the #1-seeded team of Anudeep Kodall from North Carolina and Johnathan Small from Michigan, 7-6, 4-6, 6-3.

In singles, Taylor lost in the quarterfinals to the eventual winner of the tournament, Evan Zhu from Maryland.

This week Taylor is competing in San Antonio, Texas, in the National Hardcourt Championships where he is seeded third in singles and first in doubles. He is currently ranked #1 in Southern California and #7 in the nation.

Taylor, who recently received the prestigious Bob Carrothers Sportsmanship Award (see www.BarnesTennisCenter.com), will be attending Torrey Pines High School in September as a freshman. He will be competing for a top spot on the boys varsity tennis team.