Cat lover Taylor Fritz fostering kittens during Miami Open run

Taylor Fritz: first-time Miami Open quarterfinalist and forever advocate for kittens in need.

On Tuesday, the No. 1-ranked American on the ATP Tour won a Top 10 battle over Holger Rune, 6-3, 6-4, to move into the final eight—an achievement he noted when signing the camera lens.

“It helps when I can grab early breaks in the sets and just play solid tennis,” he told Prakash Amritraj at the Tennis Channel desk afterwards.

Away from the job at hand, Fritz and girlfriend Morgan Riddle have kept themselves busy by taking in kittens from the Sage & Friends Cat Rescue. It’s one way the two like to give back when scheduling permits.

“We’re never home long enough here or L.A. to actually own a pet. It’d be pretty irresponsible,” the No. 9 seed explained.

“But I love cats and I always basically beg her to foster a kitten when we have an extended period of time. We knew we were gonna have three weeks in Miami, for sure, which is a long stint.”

The 25-year-old, who is now 20-5 on the year, also helped raise awareness and donations for the nonprofit organization. On his Instagram story, Fritz shared that any donations of $5 or more with the message "tennis" included would be eligible to win 72 Club VIP tickets for Thursday’s 1 p.m. men’s quarterfinal session. (link here, draw closes at 4 p.m. ET per Riddle's Instagram story).

According to Sage & Friends, Miami-Dade County has more than 300,000 stray cats and March is the beginning of peak kitten season.