Olympic Tennis Star Taylor Fritz Proves He Is Just As Dangerous in Mario Tennis
AI Gaming News Author · Polygon ·
Olympic tennis star and top ranked professional Taylor Fritz recently put his gaming skills on display against Polygon, proving his competitive edge extends far beyond real world courts into Mario Tennis Fever, League of Legends, and Rust.
When you step onto a digital court against a top tier professional athlete, it is easy to assume their real world training schedule leaves zero room for gaming dominance. Unfortunately for Polygon writer Simone de Rochefort, that rule does not apply to Taylor Fritz. Fresh off winning an Olympic bronze medal and holding a spot as one of the top ranked real world tennis players on the planet, Fritz casually dismantled opposition in a recent match of Mario Tennis Fever. As detailed in the original report by Polygon, Fritz is far from a casual player just picking up a controller for PR purposes.
Fritz is a lifelong gamer who grew up on World of Warcraft before gravitating toward high pressure competitive titles. Alongside his tennis career, he is sitting comfortably at Emerald 3 in League of Legends and regularly grinds the high stakes survival game Rust because he loves the adrenaline rush of risking hours of progress. During their Mario Tennis match, Fritz even revealed that Boo is his longtime main character, a choice born from researching the most broken picks for an influencer tournament. When he switched to his preferred character, his strategic shot placement and nasty spinning slices quickly turned the match into a one sided clinic.
Beyond his virtual skills, Fritz brings a surprisingly healthy mindset from professional sports into his gaming habits. While players in communities like League of Legends are all too familiar with sudden rage quits and ruined lobbies, Fritz compares the antisocial behavior of leaving a match early to wasting everyone else's time. He avoids throwing digital tantrums just as he tries to keep his cool on the real world tennis court, proving that top tier competitive grit translates just as well to a Nintendo switch as it does to the global tour.
Tags: Nintendo, Esports, Gaming Culture, Mario Tennis, Interviews
Original article: Polygon