Taylor Fritz buoyed by former Top 10 mother's success

Taylor Fritz had made quite a name for himself in 2016. The 19-year-old has risen more than a 100 spots to a career high of No. 53 (before ending the year at No. 76). He has established himself as the leader of a talented group of rising Americans, and the youngest player inside the Top 100, earning the ATP Star of Tomorrow award.

But behind all this success have been Fritz's parents, both former professional players, Guy Fritz and Kathy May.

"He is such a great competitor," Kathy May said. "He continually amazes me with what he can pull off at a young age. He is very mentally strong... He hates to lose in anything even since he was a little boy."

Both parents have helped Fritz become the budding superstar he is today, and while Guy was ranked in the 300s and has helped coach Fritz, it's May's career that stands out the most. She earned a career-high ranking of No. 10 (in 1977) and like her son, made her Wimbledon debut at the age of 18. (She fell to tournament favorite Billie Jean King much like Fritz fell to Stan Wawrinka in his debut this year).

"I'd say she's a cool mom, she understands also at the same time I'm also a teenager..." Fritz said. "I can't expect everything I do to be perfect all the time."

Fritz may not be perfect, but his rise has been promising. In 2015, he was the No. 1 junior in the world and won the junior US Open. This year, turning his sights to the pros, he won his third career ATP Challenger, reached his first ATP final in Memphis and followed that with a quarterfinal showing in Acapulco (he added another quarterfinal run in Atlanta).

The teenager still has a long way to go to catch up to his decorated title-winning mom though. May won seven career WTA titles and reached the quarterfinals of Roland Garros twice and the US Open once.

No matter what happens in the future with Fritz's career though, May will always be his concerned mom watching over him.

"He's done a great job and I'm very proud of him," May said. "And one thing I've always told him is I hope that he always remains humble and polite."