"Longest stretch I’ve spent at home since COVID" - Taylor Fritz describes 'weird' time away from court as knee issue subsides

Sidelined for the past two months, Taylor Fritz is finally back in action. While his Geneva Open campaign ended in the first round, he can look straight towards the French Open as his next competition to compete in. While the tennis is on the mind of many, the continuing off-court issues are still being discussed.

His injury struggles have stemmed from a knee injury, cutting out a lot of his clay court season. "You can say with the knee, I’m still going to feel it from time to time, but I’ve gotten to the point where I can play and probably not irritate it too much, and really keep improving it," he said when speaking to the media. "Based on scans from November to after Miami, the scans still showed that I was improving — it was getting better. But I think I really just needed that time off to get that last bit of progress that I was looking for. So, a bit rusty obviously, but feeling good physically and excited to get back to just playing tennis and getting my level back."

That is positive news heading to grass, a surface that he is very fond of. The situation has changed massively after his team chose not to travel to the Monte-Carlo Masters whether Fritz was competing or not. "My team literally came to me after Miami and said, 'You can go play Monte Carlo, you can go play whatever, but we’re not coming with you.' So that makes the decision pretty easy in the end," he admitted.

"It’s fair. I felt like I’d play one match on anti-inflammatories, feel good, and then after one match I’d be playing through a lot of pain even on the anti-inflammatories. So that’s just not ideal — it’s not sustainable. We obviously wanted me to be healthy and in a good spot with the knee for the grass-court season. All the stutter-stepping and choppy steps you take on grass are not ideal for it. So I felt like the decision in the end was: let’s try to get it better so by the time grass season comes around I can hopefully play 100 percent."

Joining the long list of top tennis players talking about prize money, Fritz was among the names who was in favour of taking action in an attempt to push the sum up. "I’ve been involved with all the guys, as pretty much all the top players have been," he explained, noting how it is not for them wanting more money, but for a more 'fair' system.

"I think at the end of the day, it’s not about wanting more money. It’s about wanting what’s fair. As the tournaments make more money, we’d obviously want to see the revenue share back to the players reflect that. When it’s going the opposite direction and going down, it’s disappointing to see.

"We’ve been pretty patient and mild with our requests. I think all of us feel it’s a bit disrespectful to just be ignored when the sport is the healthiest it’s been, and when there could be a very fair partnership and open dialogue between the players and the tournaments. I think asking for a just contribution to the pension and things like that is really fair when the ATP has done that for a long time, and obviously the Grand Slams make the bulk of the revenue in the sport. I think it’s a pretty simple ask, and I don’t think we’re asking for anything too crazy."

Women's world number one Aryna Sabalenka threw out the possibility of a boycott is things escalate even further. The American was not willing to take it that far. "I don’t know if I want to start throwing around the 'B-word.' Because it feels too radical?" he stated.

"It’s a really big deal, and I don’t think we as players should make big threats like that unless we’re fully ready to do it. That’s a discussion we need to have, and we need to see what the potential ramifications for doing that are. But yeah, it gets to a point where something does have to change if we are ignored. So that’s a conversation to have. Like I said, right now I’m not ready to start tossing that around because I want to really mean it if I’m going to say it."

He confirmed that there was not talk about a boycott, or at least from the last he heard. "Not that I’ve been involved in. I’ve also been out for the last two months." He was also participating in the 15-minute media rule. "I think the 15 minutes is however I want to use my 15 minutes. I just came in here and, yeah, I don’t know — when I’m told I’m done, I’m done. I mean, I like talking to you guys, but…"

A reporter noted an Instagram post the former US Open finalist posted on Instagram of him in the gym. This time in the gym was all based on recovery, not gaining more muscle, although that subsequently occurred. "The idea actually wasn’t to bulk up. It’s my knee, and that’s a lot of load on my knee, so the idea was actually to lose weight while also trying not to lose muscle — and even put on muscle — which I was able to do," he commented.

"That’s why I posted it. People don’t really get to see me that much, but people who know me closely would know. I was posting it because I was pretty proud of the work I put in over the two months. I’ve probably never really been in this good of shape physically. I lost, I think, 12 or 13 pounds, and all my lifts in the gym went up. So I got stronger and was able to lose a lot of weight and lean out."

He made big changes that were new to him but helped out massively. "I was really committed to working really hard, which isn’t easy when you can’t play a ton of tennis," he confirmed. "I was doing a lot of other types of cardio that I could do with my knee and sticking to a really strict diet, which I’ve never really done before. So yeah, I was just proud of what I did and how I used my time out."

Fritz is someone who regularly competes in all the tournaments. This made the most recent stretch away from the court a truly bizarre one for him as he attempted to cope with a life of being at home. "It felt weird. I told people this was the longest stretch I’ve spent at home since COVID," he said.

"For people, it already feels weird after the offseason coming back and playing that first match of the year — you feel a little rusty because you haven’t played matches. That’s only like five weeks. This was two months. It’s a long time to be away from competitive tennis.

While he emphasised his passion for there to be less events on the ATP Tour, sitting at home and watching the big tournaments currently ongoing was not what he wanted to be doing. "It’s tough to watch tournaments and watch people playing when it’s going on. I’m a huge advocate for having more time off from the tour and us playing fewer tournaments, but it’s very hard for me to just watch big events going on that I could be at, that I know I could be playing — obviously through pain, but I could be there playing. It’s not easy to see. So I tried not to pay attention to it. I really don’t know much of what’s been happening in tennis over the last two months."

Fritz has never made it past the fourth round at Roland Garros. However, if he is able to this time around any title aspirations may be halted by Jannik Sinner. The Italian has won the prior five Masters 1000 titles and is completely dominant at this moment in time.

"I mean, someone would have to play a great match where everything’s kind of clicking. Most importantly, they’d have to win the big points and play well under pressure," Fritz said. He has played the world number one in the US Open And ATP Finals final back in 2024, losing both of them.

"At the end of the day, that’s what he does better than anyone. He plays the big points so well. Even when guys get small opportunities in matches, he really shuts them out of it. It would also take him having a little bit of an off day, maybe showing some nerves, but there have been absolutely no signs of that. And when you’re really confident, as he obviously is right now, you don’t really feel those nerves too often."

His analysis concluded with the fact that anything can happen in tennis. "So I’d say it would have to be a storm of different things coming together. But the thing about tennis is, really, anything is possible at times."