Taylor Fritz struggles with injury in loss to Lorenzo Musetti at Australian Open

Taylor Fritz’s Australian Open ended in a grueling physical struggle on Monday as he was beaten 6-2, 7-5, 6-4 by fifth-seeded Lorenzo Musetti.

While it marked a milestone for Musetti, for the No. 9-seeded Fritz, the fourth-round match signalled that his body may have reached its limit.

The 2024 U.S. Open runner-up revealed in a post-match news conference that he had arrived in Melbourne in two minds about his fitness, and had nearly withdrawn because of knee and abdominal issues.

“I was fully ready to shut it down for a couple of months to get it better,” Fritz said, adding that he'd told his team: “If it stays how it is, we are just going to have to stop. I can’t play through this.”

His physiotherapist had different ideas.

“My physio, who is great and I trust him, he said that he thinks there’s a pretty solid chance that we can do all the rehab protocol and do everything we need to do while I’m still playing,” Fritz said.

After feeling discomfort in his third-round win over 40-year-old Stan Wawrinka, a much sterner test against world No. 5 Musetti proved too much.

Despite feeling “very good” in his warmup, albeit with his torso heavily strapped to help his obliques, Fritz said painkillers failed to bridge the gap.

“I thought they would maybe kick in. It didn’t do anything,” he said. "A lot of my mistakes came from me pulling up, not feeling like I’m loading my knee hard enough.”

Retiring from the match wasn't really a consideration.

“Most of the time when I’m playing through an injury, I can just go on the court and just not think about it and just, like, play and get into the match,” Fritz said. "I just could not today.

"I’m not the kind of person that pulls out. Especially in the second set, I was just really hoping I could get something going."

The 28-year-old Fritz said he's hoping he can play the tournament in Dallas but will have to wait and see how his body recovers.

“I don’t know why my knee got so much worse kind of in the last three days,” he said. "It was feeling really good through my first two rounds and all the practices before that.

“I don’t know if it’s just the overload of playing physical three, four sets, stuff like that. But you know, I have some more time to heal it. I feel like (if) I keep up with the rehab, it’s going to keep getting better.”

Taylor Fritz of the U.S. plays a backhand return to Lorenzo Musetti of Italy during their fourth round match at the Australian Open tennis championship in Melbourne, Australia, Monday, Jan. 26, 2026. (AP Photo/Asanka Brendon Ratnayake)

Taylor Fritz of the U.S. receives medicall attention as he plays against Lorenzo Musetti of Italy during their fourth round match at the Australian Open tennis championship in Melbourne, Australia, Monday, Jan. 26, 2026. (AP Photo/Mark Baker)

Lorenzo Musetti, left, of Italy, is congratulated by Taylor Fritz of the U.S. following his victory in their fourth round match at the Australian Open tennis championship in Melbourne, Australia, Monday, Jan. 26, 2026. (AP Photo/Mark Baker)

Taylor Fritz of the U.S. reacts as he plays against Lorenzo Musetti of Italy during their fourth round match at the Australian Open tennis championship in Melbourne, Australia, Monday, Jan. 26, 2026. (AP Photo/Asanka Brendon Ratnayake)

Ten new cars, five days, no fans.

Formula 1 starts a new era with the public and the media excluded from its private testing session in Spain starting Monday. It's hard to imagine a bigger contrast to last year's lavish launch party with 16,000 fans and famous faces in London.

F1 has an 11th team this year as Cadillac makes its debut, but only 10 will be in Spain after Williams hit delays getting its car ready.

There won't be TV coverage, except brief clips from F1's own broadcaster, or official results from the five-day test this week, so it'll be hard to gauge who's got a head start on F1's new regulations. The second test in Bahrain next month is when the focus switches to performance.

So why is F1 blocking fans from seeing the new cars on track?

F1 originally referred to this week's event as a “private test" but now calls it the “Barcelona Shakedown,” a term usually used for short-distance runs to check basic reliability, not the sort of multi-day extended tests in Spain.

That change reflects concerns that some all-new designs might not be reliable enough to make a positive first impression.

Bahrain has a long-running agreement to hold preseason testing and its warm weather is more representative of real races. Downgrading Barcelona may keep more attention on Bahrain, which has the first live TV coverage of cars doing timed laps.

Some teams, like Ferrari, have revealed 2026 designs and given them brief track time using exemptions for distance-limited promotional events, but plan major changes before the first race in Australia in March.

Defending champion McLaren is unusual for signaling its Barcelona design will be close to race specification. McLaren will skip Monday's running “in order to give as much time as possible to the development of the car,” team principal Andrea Stella said last week.

Others, including Red Bull, had until now only showed new paint jobs on imitation cars, making the first runs in Barcelona an especially crucial stage in development.

Teams can run on three out of five days in Spain, giving them time to fix problems without losing ground, so McLaren's delayed start isn't a setback.

With all-new engines, battery systems and smaller, lighter cars, reliability is a bigger concern than it has been for years.

The last time the rules changed this much, the first preseason test was a disaster.

Cars broke down frequently on the first day of testing at the remote Jerez circuit in 2014 as teams got to grips with the new turbocharged hybrid V6 engines, and Lewis Hamilton beached his Mercedes in a gravel trap. The problems eventually shook out over the season and Hamilton ended the year as champion.

F1 has become a very different sport in the 12 years since then, though. Netflix series “Drive To Survive” brought in a new influx of fans used to detailed broadcasts and all-access social media content.

AP auto racing: https://apnews.com/hub/auto-racing

The new Audi Revolut F1 car is presented ahead of the 2026 Formula One season, in Berlin, Germany, Tuesday, Jan. 20, 2026. (AP Photo/Ebrahim Noroozi)

Britain's Lewis Hamilton waves to fans as he steers his Ferrari Formula One SF-26 at the Ferrari private test track, in Fiorano Modenese, Italy, Friday, Jan. 23, 2026. (AP Photo/Antonio Calanni)