Taylor Fritz is confident that he isn’t risking his health by continuing to play on the Tour despite dealing with an ongoing knee problem.
The American is the top seed at this week’s Dallas Open, which he is seeking to win for the first time in his career. Fritz sealed his place in the quarter-finals on Wednesday with a 6-3, 6-4 win over Brandon Nakashima. A much smoother experience for the world No.7, who was taken to three sets in his first round match by Marcos Giron.
Following his latest win, Fritz shed light on the work he is putting in to maintain his health and fitness on the court. In recent months, he has been suffering from tendonitis in his knee, which is inflammation in his tendons.
“I do an hour on the table with my physio just working on whatever might be bothering me, every player has kind of little things going on at all times.” He told reporters in Dallas.
“Then I’ll do all the rehab stuff for my knee. Right after (a match), I kind of put it into my pre-hit warm-up. Maybe that’s like 45 minutes or so, but I’ll knock out all of the knee rehab protocol for tendonitis.”
Despite his tendonitis, Fritz believes rest isn’t the best solution for him at the moment based on the advice he is following from his physio. Even though it is usual for people suffering from the condition to be told to relax the tendon.
“Everyone’s yelling at me to stop playing, stop playing through with the rest. I get it if it’s an injury that you just rest and you feel better. I’ve been through that before,” he explained.
“This isn’t an injury that gets better with rest. If I go home and do nothing, my knee will actually get worse.
“I could go home and rest and do absolutely nothing, tennis-wise, but still do all of the rehab protocol. But I trust my physio. He believes that if I’m not at a level of pain that’s above a certain threshold, we can still do the rehab, and I can still play.
“To me, that sounds better than not doing anything for the next two months.”
Another issue Fritz has also been dealing with is related to his oblique (abdominal muscles on the side of his torso). Last month, he felt pain in the area whilst playing at the Australian Open, but multiple MRI scans have since shown ‘a little bit of inflammation’ with no signs of any tears. He added that the pain felt was less intense than last year when he hurt the same area.
“I went home after Australia and the scans didn’t show much, but I was still really scared about it because I knew what I was feeling,” Fritz commented.
“I gave it some time, and then tested it out, had a good five days of training before I came here (to Dallas), and no pain. And so far this week, no pain.”
Fritz will play Seb Korda in the quarter-finals of the Dallas Open.
