ATP Tour
Fritz gives injury update after Australian Open exit
American fell to Musetti in straight sets on Monday in Melbourne
January 26, 2026
Peter Staples
Taylor Fritz in action on Monday against Lorenzo Musetti in Melbourne.
By ATP Staff
Taylor Fritz was in a philosophical mood after falling to an uncharacteristically lacklustre Grand Slam exit against Lorenzo Musetti on Monday afternoon at the Australian Open.
The American struggled to lay a glove on his Top 10 rival during the pair’s fourth-round meeting inside Rod Laver Arena. Speaking in his post-match press conference, Fritz praised the commanding performance of Musetti but also opened up further on how the tendonitis in his knee, as well as a more recent oblique injury, hampered his title bid at Melbourne Park.
“I’ve been pretty, I guess, transparent about the knee stuff the entire week,” said Fritz. “I was so happy with how I was feeling throughout the first two rounds, and then I came in after the match with Stan [Wawrinka] and it wasn’t feeling great, especially towards the end of the match.
“Today I was feeling it from the get-go. I felt good in my warmup this morning. Then when I went to do my pre-match stuff, like moving around and stuff before the match, I just I told my physio. I was like, ‘My knee just doesn’t feel great’. I was hoping it would loosen up. I don’t really think it got worse, but it kind of just stayed the same the entire match. It was just pretty much everything was bothering it.”
With his victory, the No. 5 in the PIF ATP Rankings Musetti improved to 4-3 in his Lexus ATP Head2Head series with Fritz, who played Monday’s clash with tape on both his right and left oblique muscles,
“I just felt like I was striking the ball well. I think a lot of my mistakes just came from me pulling up, not feeling like I’m loading my knee hard enough,” said World No. 9 Fritz. “I really don’t also want to take any credit away. He was playing really well, serving really well, neutralising when I was attacking extremely well. He played great.”
Fritz expressed confidence that the oblique injury would heal quickly with some time off, while he also reiterated the need to be patient in the recovery from his knee tendonitis.
“My knee still is improving. Like I said in press after my first and second round, it’s going to be a process,” said the 28-year-old. “It was feeling better. I’m still not 100 per cent sure why I kind of went backwards the last three or four days after two weeks of it, three weeks of it just consistently getting better.
“I’ve talked to a lot of people that have had this, and they say I’ll make a full recovery at some point. Then I’ve recovered from the oblique thing before. It’s not too serious. My main focus is to just get 100 per cent healthy, which I’m hoping it’s not too far away, and just to be on top of everything so I can train and really just practise and train like I am used to.”
Currently 4-4 for the 2026 season, according to the Infosys ATP Win/Loss Index, Fritz is next scheduled to compete at the Nexo Dallas Open, which this year runs from 9-15 February.
