Injury calamity for Taylor Fritz as sudden worsening physical problems cost him dearly in Australian Open: "Up until three days ago, it felt like it was going pretty well"

It was a disappointing end to Taylor Fritz's Australian Open, with him losing out to Lorenzo Musetti 6-2, 7-5, 6-4. His press conference was dominated by questions based on the injury problems the world number nine has been playing through, with him unveiling a downturn in fortunes when it came to that area compared to his other matches at Melbourne Park.

When asked about his physical issues, Fritz answered bluntly. "Not good. I’ve been pretty transparent about the knee stuff the entire week. I was really happy with how I was feeling through the first two rounds. Then after the match with Stan [Wawrinka], I came off and thought it wasn’t feeling great, especially toward the end of that match."

This feeling continued into the defeat against Musetti. "Today I felt it from the get-go. I actually felt good in my warm-up this morning, but when I went to do my pre-match movement and prep, I told my physios my knee just didn’t feel great. I was hoping it would loosen up, and it didn’t really get worse, but it stayed the same the entire match. Pretty much everything was bothering it."

It was not just his knee causing him all sorts of problems. "That was my oblique — that’s what all the tape was for," he said. "In the first round it wasn’t that big of an issue. In the second round, maybe a little more. Then in the match with Stan, my oblique was actually killing me, especially on returns. When he kicked his second serve to my backhand, I couldn’t hit it — I could only push it. If I tried to turn on it, it was killing me. So we tried taping it today."

He had scans done to see the problems. "Before the tournament, after the second round, I did an ultrasound, and then yesterday I had an MRI." It showed a familiar problem battled before by the American. "It’s the exact same thing I had last year that took me out at the beginning of the clay-court season and part of the hard-court season."

However, it could be worse. "The scans show there’s no obvious tear like there was before, but the symptoms are exactly the same," he stated. "The same shots hurt me. It’s identical to last year, and I kind of made a mess of it last year by trying to play through it too much. So we’re monitoring it. I don’t think it’s as bad as last year, and I think I can recover fairly quickly if I take some time off."

Carlos Alcaraz and Jannik Sinner went into the Australian Open with just one exhibition match. There was no way Fritz was doing the same thing. "I mean, Carlos and Jannik are at a different level to pretty much everyone else, and they don’t start with the United Cup," he commented. "For me, I would hate to go into the Australian Open with zero matches. That’s just who I am. I also like to train the week before."

He doubled down on participating at the United Cup as the best preparation. "Showing up a week later and playing a 250 the week before doesn’t feel like the best answer either," he explained. "Playing the United Cup has always worked well for me, and I’ve felt good coming in the last couple of years doing that. I felt rusty even in my first match at the United Cup — I would hate to show up to a Slam feeling like that. Maybe for those guys it works because they’re confident they can play themselves into form."

While he was able to execute this plan, his off-season was not perfect, with the conversation once more moving back to the physical problems. "There wasn’t enough training in the off-season, but there was nothing I could do," he acknowledged. "I was rehabbing a knee injury. Even today, even if the knee hadn’t got me, it would have been really hard to play a long five-setter in the heat. It’s not about laziness or needing to work harder — I physically haven’t been able to. I spent the off-season fully rehabbing and doing gym work. I just didn’t get enough time on the court. That’s all I could do."

Some big events are coming up for Fritz as he looks back to his native USA. He will compete in them depending on how he feels. "I’m going to see how the oblique reacts. It felt pretty good today, but he wasn’t really making me play the shots that usually bother it."

Up first: the Dallas Open before a double-header of Masters 1000 events in the Indian Wells Open and Miami Open. "I’m hoping I can play Dallas," he confirmed. "I don’t know why my knee got so much worse over the last three days, because it was feeling really good through the first two rounds and all the practices before that. Maybe it was just overload — playing physical three- or four-set matches. I’ll keep up with the rehab."

It will benefit him that, unlike in a Grand Slam match, he will not go over three sets. "I won’t have to play more than three sets in Dallas, so we’ll see. If my knee or oblique doesn’t feel like it’s getting better, I’ll give myself the time."

The injuries were taking its toll on the former US Open finalist, but not enough at the start to think about withdrawing. "I mean, before the match it didn’t cross my mind at all because I felt very good in my warm-up," he stated. "Part of me hoped it would loosen up. I was already on anti-inflammatories, and they gave me other painkillers, but it didn’t do anything."

Despite the pain, he was not allowing it to show off to his opponent. "I felt like I was striking the ball well. A lot of my mistakes came from not feeling like I could load my knee properly. I don’t want to take anything away from him — he was playing great, serving well, neutralising my attacks. I thought in the second set I could get something going. I had some chances to break."

His trend of playing through injuries did not work out today, with him confirming that there was never any thought of retiring. "Usually when I play through injury, I can go out there and not think about it. Today I just couldn’t stop thinking about it. That made it really hard to get into the match. But I’m not the kind of person who pulls out, and in the second set I was really hoping I could turn it around."

It has been a rough patch on the court, with the 28-year-old last playing injury free at the start of the Asian swing. "I’ve had the knee tendinitis since around last grass-court season," he noted. "But during the US Open, Laver Cup, and Tokyo, I wasn’t thinking about it at all on court. That was probably the last stretch of three tournaments where I felt completely free physically."

He was not too worried about the injuries and his road to recovery, but if needs must then the plan my be taking an elongated period out on the sidelines. "Going into the year, that was actually how I was thinking," he unveiled. "I told my team that if it stayed how it was, we’d have to shut it down for a couple of months. What I have with my knee isn’t uncommon — there’s a clear protocol to fix it."

There was even concerns that he would not compete in Australia. "When I first got to Australia, I said if it doesn’t improve, I can’t play through this. But my physio, who I trust a lot, thinks there’s a solid chance we can do the full rehab protocol while I’m still playing, resting between tournaments and maybe playing fewer events. So we decided to try that. Up until three days ago, it felt like it was going pretty well. That’s still the plan for now," he concluded.