Taylor Fritz reflects on reaching the Wimbledon second round after having knee surgery three weeks ago

After suffering a devastating right knee injury at Roland Garros less than a month ago, Taylor Fritz has found himself back on the tennis court as he hopes to make a deep run at the Wimbledon championships.

Fritz defeated compatriot Brandon Nakashima 7-5 3-6 6-4 7-5, advancing to the second round at the All England Club.  The 23-year old looked spry and fit on the court, showing no signs of someone who had recently gone under the knife.

"It’s pretty amazing. This win means a lot more to me than a lot of people realize and than a lot of other big matches I had, just because I literally had surgery exactly three weeks ago,” Fritz said.

“To be here and actually feel like I’m moving 100 per cent and playing well and getting a win against a very good player — I think he would have beaten a lot of people in the draw the way he played today — it’s just amazing to see all the hard work I put in.”

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The American injured his knee at the end of his second round match in Paris, and was taken off the court in a wheelchair. Fearing a meniscus injury that would have kept him out of action for close to eight months, the World No.40 was pleased to find out the damage was not as extensive as the doctors had anticipated.

"When I woke up from the surgery, he said he didn’t actually have to repair it," revealed Fritz. "They were just able to snip it out and the rest of my cartilage, the rest of my meniscus and everything was intact. Not damaged at all. It didn’t need any kind of fixing. That was when I was like, ‘Wow, I can do all the right things right now and I might be able to play Wimbledon."

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Fritz did three-and-a-half-hours of physical therapy six times a week at Elite OrthoSport in California and also removed any inflammatory foods from his diet to help with his recovery. That meant no soda or fried foods to help get the swelling in his knee down from the two incisions.

“I just did everything possible, because I had this goal set in my mind that I was going to play here,” Fritz said. “It’s awesome to do it.”