"We didn’t want him to have a career-ending injury": Fritz' coach dubs decision to face Nadal with injury at Indian Wells as extremely stubborn

Taylor Fritz's coach, Michael Russell, said that the player was "extremely stubborn" to play the final of the BNP Paribas Open Indian Wells.

Fritz played the Indian Wells final with a foot injury that prevented him from practicing in the morning. As it has been revealed, the player could barely walk, but decided to play despite the risk. The American received two injections for the pain and managed to defeat Rafael Nadal to win his first Master 1000 title.

"We can say playing the finals of Indian Wells when he couldn’t even walk. That was extremely stubborn because we all, just based on his feelings and what he was explaining to us, it was the most excruciating pain he’s ever felt in his life.

We didn’t want him to have a career-ending injury not just for tennis, but for quality of life. He insisted on playing and obviously the rest we know what happened. He’s extremely stubborn on that front. A lot of times he’ll make decisions that he thinks are best, but usually the team goes along with it," said Russel to the ATP website.

The current world No. 10 recently admitted that he entered that match without too many expectations:

"It helped me on the court. I knew I had absolutely nothing to lose, for sure. Being injured or people thinking you're injured when you're not, it depressurizes you. Some people might do it on purpose, I absolutely don't. I had a serious injury and I didn't think I was going to play. It definitely loosened me up and I was like, who cares? I'm injured and let's go out there and do what I can," Fritz admitted on the "Break Point: A Netflix Recap Show" podcast.