Taylor Fritz returned to the tennis courts at the 2025 Indian Wells Open, and he spoke about his injury after his first win.
Fritz is a former Indian Wells Open champion. He won the ATP Masters 1000 tournament in the Californian desert in 2022, and to this day, it’s the biggest trophy he managed to win in his tennis career. Therefore, it’s not a surprise that he always likes to return to Indian Wells.
This year, however, his participation probably wasn’t so certain. Fritz withdrew from the Mexican Open in Acapulco. It was a late withdrawal, but the American player had a good reason to pull out of the tournament. He struggled with an injury that bothered him already in Dallas and Delray Beach.
Fritz assessed that playing with an injury was not ideal, especially with the Indian Wells Open in his mind. The decision to withdraw from the ATP 500 event in Acapulco likely proved to be a good one, as the 27-year-old started with a win in Indian Wells.
He beat Matteo Gigante 6-3, 7-5, and after his win, Fritz spoke about how he felt on the court, and he also mentioned his injury and how he felt about it.
“It was a pretty solid match. I told myself going in I can’t be too hard on myself in the match, I can’t expect too much, because my first practice after taking, like, over a week off was on Tuesday. So, the good news was I played; I didn’t think about, I guess, my oblique injury once, which is a good sign.”
“That was something that was bothering me a lot throughout my matches in Dallas, Delray, and I was trying to practice in Acapulco. I couldn’t really play without being worried about it. It’s good I felt I could play physically and normal today. Definitely some things I want to clean up, need to do better. All in all, it was a pretty solid match.”
The injury was likely serious enough, as it kept Fritz away from the tennis courts for some time. He admitted that since withdrawing from the Mexican Open, he hadn’t touched a racket for almost two weeks.
“I’d say, let me think, I’d say from when I pulled out of Acapulco to then this Tuesday. It was almost two weeks probably, almost two weeks. I tried to just do fitness and, you know, do what I could do, but I didn’t hit a ball and just stopped doing all kind of like anything that was rotational.”
“I guess maybe it had already started to heal a little bit because the initial injury would have been before Dallas. But yeah, it definitely was prolonging it. In hindsight it was a bad decision to play Delray and to go to Acapulco. I think hopefully we’re over it now.”
