Taylor Fritz has concluded his Australian Open tournament run with a fourth-round loss to the 23-year-old Lorenzo Musetti at the Rod Laver Arena. The World No. 9, who was already battling knee tendonitis following his United Cup run with Team USA, has recently revealed he is also facing issues with his oblique, the same problem he suffered during his 2025 season, while giving his health update and plans.
Taylor Fritz Reflects on His Health and Being Cautious Moving Ahead Due to Recurring Oblique Issues
Fritz entered the Australian Open as the ninth seed and defeated the World No. 58, Valentin Royer, in the first round, Vit Kopriva in the second round, and then, in the third round, surpassed veteran Swiss star Stan Wawrinka. In the fourth round, he faced the World No. 5, Musetti, and lost with a concluding score of 6-2, 7-5, 6-4.
During his post-match press conference, the Rancho Santa Fe, California, native shared that his oblique was posing a problem for him during his Grand Slam run. He shared that the issue was minor and got escalated during his third-round match against Wawrinka.
He added, “It was my oblique. That was all the tape. We tried taping it today because I felt in the first round it wasn’t that big of an issue. In the second round maybe a little bit more, and then in the match with Stan, my oblique was actually killing me when I was trying to return. He’d kick his second serve, my backhand. I could only push it if I tried to turn on it but it was killing me.”
Fritz also revealed that he was keeping his health in check and had undergone two ultrasounds and a magnetic resonance imaging test, noting that the oblique issues were the same he had faced in his last season, which had forced him to skip matches.
He added, “So, tried to tape it and I had before the tournament, did an ultrasound, after the second round did an ultrasound and then yesterday I did an MRI. It’s the exact same thing that I had last year that took me out for the beginning of clay court season and a bit during the hardcore season I tried to play through.”
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The American star continued to highlight that he could change his plans based on his health needs, and that the pain isn’t as much as compared to the last time, adding, “All the scans show that it’s not an obvious tear there was before. I’m being cautious because it’s all the same symptoms, same shots hurt me, it’s exactly the same as last year and I kind of made a mess of this thing last year trying to play through it a bit too much. We’re monitoring it, but I don’t think it’s as bad as it was last year. I think I can recover from it fairly quickly if I just take some time off.”
In 2025, Fritz suffered an abdominal injury, which prevented him from playing at the Monte Carlo Masters and the Abierto Mexicano Telcel ATP 500 in Acapulco. Apart from this, he also had to skip playing at the Ultimate Tennis Showdown exhibition in Nimes, France, due to the injury.
Ravleen Kaur
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