American tennis star Taylor Fritz recently opened up about a major knee issue he has been struggling with for quite some time, which also troubled him during his second group-stage clash against Carlos Alcaraz at the ATP Finals. The American, who pushed the World No. 2 to the limit in Turin, later admitted his frustration over not being able to close out the match in his favor.
Taylor Fritz Makes Shocking Revelation About Injury Scare Following Defeat to Carlos Alcaraz
Fritz arrived at the Pala Alpitour aiming to improve his head-to-head record against Alcaraz and boost his chances of reaching the semifinals, having opened his campaign with a win over Lorenzo Musetti. True to his intent, he made a strong start against the Spaniard, clinching a grueling first set 7-6(2).
However, missed opportunities proved costly for Fritz, including two squandered break points at 2-2 in a tightly contested second set, which Alcaraz eventually claimed 7-5. Despite delivering 75% of his first serves in and fighting hard until the end, Fritz couldn’t maintain his intensity as Alcaraz capitalized to seal a 6-7(7), 7-5, 6-3 victory.
Fritz was visibly disappointed with the setback and later admitted in his press conference that the loss left him frustrated. He also disclosed that his drop in performance was due to tendinitis in his knee, a lingering issue he has been battling for quite some time.
“I mean, there’s definitely frustration ’cause, like I said, I felt like I had my opportunities. I mean, to be completely honest, it’s just the flatness is just my knee. My knee’s completely cooked. There’s nothing I can really do,” he said.
“I’ve been dealing with it all year. I’ve had tendinitis all year long. It didn’t start to become a problem in my actual tennis matches until around grass court season, after grass court season. Up until then I would only ever feel the pain after cooling down, after being done. It was never an issue. That’s when I started feeling it during matches,” he added.
The American added that the issue has made it difficult to play on consecutive days without pain. He noted that after intense matches, he needs a recovery day, adding that Tokyo was the only event where he played pain-free.
“Kind of since that part of the year I’ve really struggled to kind of play back-to-back days without it flaring up. I feel like if I play one really hard day where I’m moving intensely and playing hard, then I need a day for it to kind of calm down. Tokyo was the only time this whole year, for whatever reason, I was able to play back-to-back days without pain,” he said.
Fritz said the pain began late in the first set while facing Alcaraz but worsened by the third, making it difficult to bend his right leg while serving or hitting shots. He admitted feeling physically flat and struggling to generate his usual power.
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“Yeah, I started feeling it towards the end of the first set, but it didn’t really affect me until the third set. It just got to the point where I was really struggling to bend my back leg on my serve, step into backhands, load the leg, my right leg, for like an open-stance forehand.
Yeah, I mean, the feeling of flatness, I’m really struggling with it,” he added.
Fritz’s revelation comes as a concerning update, as he has one deciding match left against Alex De Minaur, which will determine whether he qualifies for the semifinals or not. This will notbaly be the first meeting of the season between the two, with their head-to-head currently tied at 5-5.
