Taylor Fritz: Playing Through Pain at the Australian Open
Melbourne, January 24, 2026 — Taylor Fritz shouldn’t be here. Not really. The ninth seed spent his entire offseason nursing serious knee tendonitis, went 1-3 at the United Cup, and arrived in Melbourne wondering if he could even compete. Yet here he is, defying expectations and his own body in Australia.
The Injury No One Expected Him to Overcome
Fritz has been brutally honest about his situation: “pretty serious tendonitis” that takes months to heal. The problem? He doesn’t have months. The season waits for no one, injured or not.
“If you look at the tour, it’s not just me,” Fritz said after his first-round win. “There are a lot of people starting the year with injuries. Maybe the season’s too long. Maybe four weeks isn’t enough to fully get healthy.”
It’s a damning assessment of professional tennis in 2026, and Fritz is living proof of the problem.
After losing to Sebastian Baez in three grinding sets at the United Cup, Fritz looked like a player headed for an early Melbourne exit. Then something clicked.
He gutted out a four-set first-round win over Valentin Royer despite dropping the second set, firing 24 aces through obvious discomfort. But it was his second-round performance that turned heads: a dominant 6-1, 6-4, 7-6(4) dismantling of Vit Kopriva in under two hours.
“Way better than I expected to be after how I felt my first week or so in Australia,” Fritz admitted, sounding almost surprised by his own body’s cooperation.
The Ultimate Test: A Legend’s Last Dance
Fritz’s reward for finding form? A third-round clash with 40-year-old Stan Wawrinka, playing his final season and showing he’s got plenty of fight left. Wawrinka just outlasted Arthur Gea in a four-hour marathon, becoming the oldest man to reach this stage since 44-year-old Ken Rosewall in 1978.
For Fritz, there’s uncomfortable déjà vu lurking. Last year, 38-year-old Gael Monfils knocked him out in the third round. Losing to another veteran in the same spot would sting.
“It’s so impressive the level and just the physicality he’s still bringing,” Fritz said of Wawrinka, who leads their head-to-head 2-1. “People that compete really well tend to win out over the longer matches.”
Translation: this won’t be easy.
The Schedule Nobody Talks About
Fritz isn’t just fighting his knee or Wawrinka. He’s fighting a system that demands too much, too often, with too little recovery. Even Iga Swiatek has backed his complaints, noting authorities keep “pushing and pushing for us to play more.”
The American is famous for playing hurt—he beat Rafael Nadal at Indian Wells 2022 with a serious ankle injury. But starting a Grand Slam season already compromised? That’s different.
“I don’t want to stop completely for four months when I feel I can sometimes play through the pain,” he explained. It’s the athlete’s eternal dilemma: compete now or heal properly? There’s rarely time for both.
What’s Really at Stake
Fritz has reached the third round in six of the past seven Australian Opens, but he’s never broken through to the quarterfinals in Melbourne. With a favorable section of the draw and Lorenzo Musetti as the highest seed in his quarter, this could be his year—if his knee holds.
A Grand Slam final remains the ultimate goal for American men’s tennis current standard-bearer. At 28, windows don’t stay open forever, especially when your body’s already sending warning signals.
The Fighter’s Choice
After nearly choking away his serve while trying to close out Kopriva, Fritz revealed his mindset: “All I was thinking in the tiebreak was just to forget about it, bounce back, and just focus on playing each next point the best I could.”
That’s the mentality carrying him through Melbourne. Forget the injury. Forget the lost offseason. Forget the disappointing United Cup. Just play the next point.
It’s working so far. The knee is improving daily, his serve is clicking, and he’s already exceeded his own expectations. Whether it’s enough to outlast a 40-year-old champion who refuses to age gracefully remains to be seen.
One thing’s certain: Taylor Fritz isn’t backing down. Not from Wawrinka, not from his injury, and not from a tennis calendar that asks too much of its players.
Sometimes the most compelling stories aren’t about perfection. They’re about showing up hurt and fighting anyway.