Playing through injuries, Taylor Fritz blames short off-season for slow start at Australian Open

MELBOURNE, Australia—Tennis players are thought to be at their fittest when the season first gets underway, but Taylor Fritz pointed to the four-week off-season as responsible for more injured players at the Australian Open.

“Maybe the season is too long, I don't know,” Fritz said sarcastically after advancing past Valentin Royer, 7-6 (5), 5-7, 6-1, 6-3. “Maybe four weeks isn't enough to fully get healthy of all injuries.

“You know, it is what it is. You know, I think I laid a lot of groundwork in the off-season to get healthy. But at the same time the off-season is so short, you need to be like training hard in the off-season or else you come into the year feeling like you've not played enough matches or had enough time on court, which is very much how I feel.

“Yeah, I mean, it's tough when, you know, we have an off-season that kind of forces you where you have to be healthy in it to train or else you're kind of in a bad spot to start the season. It's not the best situation.”

Fritz began 2026 in that exact situation, playing through a knee injury that saw him visibly hampered through his United Cup campaign. Looking stronger in Melbourne, Fritz navigated two close sets before running away with the match against the unseeded Frenchman.

“When I came out for the third, I was just much more calm and relaxed and my mind was just working a lot more clearly,” the No. 9 seed said in his post-match press conference. “I felt like just my decision-making was so much better.

“I knew what shots to hit. I wasn't, like, going over in my head as I'm hitting a shot what I should do like I was the first two sets. I just felt very, like, calm and confident. I really felt like myself the last two sets.”

Giving an update on his health ahead of a second round against Czechia’s Vit Kopriva, Fritz gave a mixed assessment of where he stands physically after his first best-of-five match of the year.

It's tough when, you know, we have an off-season that kind of forces you where you have to be healthy in it to train or else you're kind of in a bad spot to start the season. It's not the best situation. Taylor Fritz

“There's been some pretty big improvements in my knee,” Fritz confirmed. “That was the goal to start feeling that about a little over two months into this, the program of strengthening the tendon. But, you know, I'm way better than I expected to be after how I felt my first week or so in Australia. Yeah, I didn't expect to be able to play, I guess, the physicality and the length of the match I played today and actually not have my knee feel like awful right now. It's really promising.

“But unfortunately, there were some other injuries that popped up this week kind of when I was getting ready, which sucks. I don't want to get into it too much. I might talk about it after the tournament. But I'm kind of just having to feel it as I go because it's something I've dealt with before, so I, you know, am familiar with it.”

In the past, Fritz has most prominently suffered from wrist and abdominal issues, but the exact injuries are anyone’s guess as the American, who hosts an annual meet-up of U.S. men each year in Australia, looks to remain at the head of a very talented pack of countrymen.

“It makes sense in Australia, because it's like we start the year, there's some time before the tournament,” Fritz said. “You know, a lot of us haven't seen each other because of off-season and stuff like that. So, you know, we always do it here.

“I don't have every American guy's number. And there's new guys that come up. So, I put six or seven of the guys in the group chat, and everyone is invited. I'm getting the big table.”

In a quarter of the draw that includes No. 4 seed Novak Djokovic and No. 5 seed Lorenzo Musetti, Fritz will no doubt aim for some big-table results despite the nagging injuries in Melbourne.