In the first two games, Fritz laid it on pretty thick, befuddling me with his use of power serves and Boo slices. To be fair, he did give me a heads-up.<\/p>\n
\u201cI’ll warn you, the reason why I play Boo is because he’s got some nasty spin,\u201d Fritz said right before the match began. Boy, he was not joking. <\/p>\n
In the third game, Fritz abandoned Boo (maybe out of pity, who knows) and I found the character that clicked best for me in Luma. I went up 5-0 on Fritz\u2019s Bowser (Tornado racket and all) before he came storming back and tied it 5-5. Thanks to some tricky maneuvering and a well timed body shot (after which I may or may not have yelled \u201cFINISH HIM!\u201d) I was able to save some pride and take one game off of him. <\/p>\n
Mario Tennis Fever Match With Taylor Fritz<\/p>\n
I foolishly decided to switch to Baby Bowser for the next game, in which Fritz promptly destroyed me 7-0. Who would have thought that real-world tennis skills could convert so thoroughly to Switch 2-based competitions? <\/p>\n
After our match, I sat down with Fritz to talk about his love of Mario games dating back to the Nintendo 64 and whether or not his skill on the court gave him a leg up when competing on the Switch. <\/p>\n
\u201cMaybe a little bit,\u201d Fritz says. \u201cA lot of the game is moving to the ball once you see it and understanding like I do with the boost slices, it catches people off guard because they just want to follow the ball. It’s like (real) tennis like that. I’ll see it and I’ll know where to actually move to, to hit it. And you work at a position, you come to the net. There’s definitely some tennis nuances there.\u201d<\/p>\n
Still smarting at my epic defeat, I asked Fritz, who says his go-to characters are Boo and Bowser and that his favorite Fever Racket is Bullet Bill, if he gets a lot of challenges from friends and family who want to be able to claim that they beat Taylor Fritz at ANY type of tennis. He assured me that I wasn\u2019t the first person who tried and failed to get the best of him. <\/p>\n
\u201cNo one can really beat me in this one either,\u201d Fritz says. \u201cI gravitate more towards (video games) that feel competitive and fun. There’s other tennis titles, obviously, but as far as tennis games go for me, it’s always been the most enjoyable playing Mario Tennis.\u201d<\/p>\n
In fact, the very first video game Fritz remembers playing was the Nintendo 64 version of Mario Tennis. <\/p>\n