When you’re playing video games against a professional athlete, you could be forgiven for hoping their rigorous training and competition schedule might prevent them from getting really, really good at games. Sadly, this isn’t the case for Taylor Fritz, the tennis star who destroyed me in Mario Tennis Fever.
Fritz is one of the best real-life, non-video-game tennis players in the world — he’s currently ranked number 8 among the thousands of hopefuls who take to the courts in tournaments across the globe. He holds an Olympic Bronze medal for the U.S., and 10 career titles. He’s also a lifelong gamer, cutting his teeth on World of Warcraft before honing in on the competitive multiplayer experiences he prefers.
“I enjoy playing online games, competitive stuff, because there’s more pressure and entertainment in it for me. I enjoy that a lot,” Fritz tells Polygon. He’s ranked Emerald 3 in League of Legends, and the sweaty survival game Rust is one of his favorites.
“I like games that require a time commitment. It kind of makes me feel that rush of ‘I could lose everything I’ve just spent a lot of time working for,’” says Fritz.
For all his competitiveness, he’s remarkably chill in our Mario Tennis Fever match-up. Or maybe I’m just not activating his cutthroat instincts. In our first game, he plays as Bowser while I choose Boo, my longtime main. We switch it up after he reveals that Boo is his longtime main.
“I won a tournament one time with him,” Fritz says casually, a red flag I only notice when I read through the transcript of our interview. Why Boo? “We played a Mario Tennis influencer tournament, and I looked up online what was the most broken character to play. I played online a little bit, and I was like, “Yeah, this is kind of insane.”
Dutifully wanting Fritz to feel his best, I swap to Shy Guy for the next round. Fritz’s first spinning slice shot absolutely knocks me on my ass. What follows is a devastating rout that ends with my tiny Shy Guy scrambling from one side of the court to the other as I try to return Fritz’s winding, weaving volleys.
“That’s why I like it,” Fritz says with a cheerful grin, over the sound of my disbelieving yells. “That’s like real tennis there. I’m kind of working you out of position, and then I came into the net and kind of took the time away and finished it.”
To regain control, he offers, I might have tried a hard passing shot or a lob over his head, which would force him to the back of the court and allow me (and Shy Guy) to get back in rhythm. I don’t do that!
In spite of his competitive nature, Fritz isn’t known as a temperamental “racket-breaker” in the tennis world.
“From time to time, I’ll let it go,” says Fritz. “I do it more, I’d say, in practice, actually, than matches, because in matches I try to not get so frustrated.”
Tennis players are generally allowed to break one racket per match, with an escalating series of warnings, fines, and penalties for excessive on-court rage. It remains a controversial practice that seems to take on an almost spiritual aspect. When Coco Gauff lost a match in the 2026 Australian Open and retreated backstage to break her racket, press cameras caught her and broadcasted the incident. Gauff expressed disappointment, saying she had tried to let her frustration out privately — not in the heat of the moment, but away from the prying, judgmental eyes of the tennis-watching public.
Breaking a racket in the heat of an emotional moment seems almost akin to rage-quitting a video game. But Fritz says neither one is his style.
“You’re kind of just wasting everyone else’s time, and not everyone has that kind of time in the day to deal with that. If someone just leaves in the middle of the game — especially, what comes to my mind, a game of League or something — it’s like 30 minutes of everyone’s life’s gone and wasted. So just play it out, try to win.”
