Taylor Fritz withdraws from Monte-Carlo Masters due to continuous knee injury as clay swing now in doubt

Taylor Fritz has played a lot of tennis these past months and years, regularly competing in consecutive tournaments as he looks to keep his place as the American number one at the top of the rankings while challenging for big titles. However, it seems to have caught up with him. He has withdrawn from the Monte-Carlo Masters due to a knee injury.

This comes after a disappointing Sunshine swing. The 2022 Indian Wells champion suffered an early exit in the tournament in California before a huge opportunity arose at the Miami Open. He was one of three top 10 players left in the last-16 stage, but could not progress from that stage after losing out to Jiri Lehecka in a frustrating defeat.

This has been compounded by a knee injury picked up at the tournament in Florida. It could be a recurring injury that has hampered his progress since the 2025 off-season or a separate issue.

Whatever it is, he will not be featuring at the Monte-Carlo Masters, a tournament he reached the semi-final back in 2023, losing to eventual champion Andrey Rublev. He made it to the quarterfinals stage the year beforehand but has suffered first-round exits in 2021 and most recently in 2024 when Lorenzo Musetti sent him tumbling out. The Monte-Carlo Masters was the only Masters 1000 tournament the American did not play in last year.

The news was announced on the official account's Instagram story. It read: “Taylor Fritz has been forced to withdraw from the tournament due to injury. We wish him a speedy recovery and look forward to welcoming him back soon.”

Fritz has really been struggling with his knee. Sometimes he is moving freely and able to compete with the best, like at the Dallas Open, where he squandered three championship points against Ben Shelton. This was in contrast to the problems encountered at Indian Wells and the Miami Open.

Before the Sunshine swing commenced, he hinted at skipping a number of clay events as he looks to compete in fewer tournaments going forward due to his injury woes. Instead of battling through it, Fritz is looking to be as fresh as possible for when the tennis goes back to grass, a favourable surface.

He has won 10 ATP titles, with half of them coming on grass. He has never lost a final on the surface and looks to continue his fine form from last year, when he won the Stuttgart Open and Eastbourne Open, his most recent ATP title triumphs.

Adding to that, he also reached the semi-final stage of Wimbledon, his best result in the Grand Slam. He would go on to lose to Carlos Alcaraz in four sets, but it marked a memorable period for the 28-year-old who climbed back to a joint career high of world number four.

This means there are a lot of points to defend in this period. He was not at his best on clay last year, which is not one of his favourite surfaces. He lost in the first round of Roland Garros while suffering early exits in the Madrid Open, Rome Open and Geneva Open. This means that he will not drop that far down the rankings if he chooses to skip a number of these tournaments. While it is confirmed that he will not be returning to Monaco for a second year on the spin, it is yet to be seen whether he will recover from his knee injury or how many clay competitions he will compete in.