Yahoo Sports Taylor Fritz Donates Australian Open Prize Money to California Wildfire Relief
As Taylor Fritz plays in the first Grand Slam of 2025, his thoughts are with his home state of California. “I just want everyone to obviously stay safe,” Fritz said. “It’s just insane what happened.”
Fritz, who was born in Rancho Santa Fe and lives in Los Angeles, shared today he will be donating the prize money from the first round of the Australian Open (around $82,000) to funds to help those impacted by wildfires in Southern California.
“I mean, I feel like it’s really the least I can do,” Fritz said after his divisive second round victory over over Cristian Garín of Chile (he won in straight sets 6-2, 6-1, 6-0). He continued, “Obviously SoCal has been my home forever. I still spend a lot of time in LA, but I lived in LA for quite a while. I have friends impacted; family not so much. I had some family have to evacuate. The house that my brothers grew up in burnt down. Obviously, they’re not living there anymore.”
He added, “A lot of people are affected by it. I feel like if you’re in a place to help, then you should.”
The Australian Open began this past weekend, and Fritz is currently ranked number four in the world, a career high for the American player.
“At the end of the day, you can't be thinking about the worst case scenario,” he told T&C last summer before the U.S. Open, where he reached the finals. “You can't be thinking about bad things that could happen. You just have to go out and play. That's something I've learned—I've had times in the past where I'm very anxious and on the Grand Slam weeks and it's such an important week to perform, but then I've taken some losses and it's taught me to just go out there and just not care as much. Even though you care so much. It is tough to explain, but you have to care and then not care at the same time.”
He plays again tomorrow, facing Gael Monfils in the third round. Fritz has won their only meeting.
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