Oft-injured star looks to win the tournament where he made his big breakthrough in 2022.
AMERICAN Taylor Fritz returns a shot against Britain’s Jacob Fearnley at the BNP Paribas Open.
(Harry How Getty Images)
INDIAN WELLS — Taylor Fritz is hurting.
Not all the time, not in a deeply debilitating way, but enough that his ongoing battle with right-knee tendinitis has become part of his tennis-playing identity — as much as his astute court acumen, steadfast competitiveness and Southern California charisma.
All of those traits will be called upon if the Rancho Palos Verdes resident is to make another deep run at the BNP Paribas Open, the place that feels like home and where his biggest breakthrough came in 2022.
“I felt like I had a lot to prove back then to myself because I wasn’t ranked as high, but I felt like my level was there, and it was one of the best, if not the best, week of my career,” Fritz said of beating Rafael Nadal for the title.
The run here established Fritz as the de facto face of American men’s tennis and elevated him to more elite echelons in the sport. Four years later in his Ith consecutive appearance in the desert, the question is less about proving himself and more about sustaining the level that carried him to the top tier of the game.
Front of mind, however, is his struggle with tendinitis. It hampered his offseason and is forcing him to balance rehabilitation with the intense demands of competitive tennis. For a player built around explosive movement and a punishing serve, the margin can feel precarious.
A heavy schedule of sponsor shoots in the days leading up to the tournament sent the stiffness in his knee “through the roof,” Fritz said
“It’s actually the worst it’s been in a while,” he said after his opening round defeat of Britain’s Jacob Fearnley in three sets Saturday night.
At 28, Fritz is no stranger to physical setbacks or the burden of carrying the U.S. flag in men’s tennis.
