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.
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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)
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in a post-match news conference that he had arrived in Melbourne in two minds about his fitness, and had nearly withdrawn because of knee and abdominal issues.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)
The National Transportation Safety Board on Sunday said it is gathering information about the evacuation of a Frontier Airlines plane after it hit and killed a person on the runway at Denver International Airport during takeoff.
The plane, on route from Denver to Los Angeles International Airport, “reported striking a pedestrian during takeoff at DEN at approximately 11:19 p.m. on Friday,” according to a post on the airport’s official X account.
Passengers were evacuated via slides, and the emergency crew bused them to the terminal. An airport spokesperson said 12 passengers suffered minor injuries and five were taken to hospitals.
Some people on board expressed concern about the evacuation, including being stuck in the plane for several minutes as smoke filled the cabin and left on the tarmac in the cold once they were out. Video also showed some passengers coming down the slide with what looked to be their carry-on bags.
“We are gathering information about the emergency evacuation to determine if it meets criteria for a safety investigation,” NTSB spokesperson Sarah Taylor Sulick said early Sunday, adding that the agency might have more details in a few hours.
Frontier Airlines didn’t respond early Sunday to a request for information about the evacuation.
A spokesman for the Denver Police Departmet said Sunday the investigation into the incident was ongoing and that the identification of the person on the runway will be confirmed and released by the Denver Office of the Medical Examiner.
The person was hit two minutes after jumping the fence and crossing the runway. The person is not believed to be an airport employee.
“We’re stopping on the runway,” the pilot tells the control tower according to the site ATC.com. “We just hit somebody. We have an engine fire.”
The pilot tells the air traffic controller they have “231 souls” on board and that an “individual was walking across the runway.”
The air traffic controller responds that they are “rolling the trucks now” before the pilot tells the tower they “have smoke in the aircraft. We are going to evacuate on the runway.”
Frontier Airlines said in a statement that flight 4345 was the one involved in the collision and that “smoke was reported in the cabin and the pilots aborted takeoff.” It was not clear whether the smoke was linked to the collision.
The airline said the plane was carrying 224 passengers and seven crew members.
“We are investigating this incident and gathering more information in coordination with the airport and other safety authorities,” the airline said.
Passengers said panic took hold on the flight after an engine caught fire and the cabin began filling with smoke.
“Honestly, I thought I was going to die,” passenger Mohamed Hassan told Colorado’s 9NEWS.
“A lot of people next to me were screaming and crying. I just closed my eyes,” he said. "At that time, you’re not really thinking of anything, you know? Because we were just about to take off and I heard that boom, so I wasn’t sure what happened. I just thought something really, really bad happened.”
Passenger Nikil Thalanki told local media outlets that he felt “this jerk” as the plane was about to take off, adding that it felt like the wheels had left the ground but then came back down.
“There was fire on the engine. There was lots of sparks that are happening. Immediately came to a stop,” Thalanki said. "As soon as we saw the sparks on the flight, smoke filled the cabin completely. It was super hard to breathe.”
Kimberly Randle said passengers were panicking and desperate to get off the aircraft.
“In a few minutes, they finally opened the door. People were running to get out of the plane," he said. "It was chaos everywhere.”
The NTSB has for years expressed concerned about evacuations, especially passengers leaving with their carry-ons. In an April report on the evacuation aboard a United Airlines flight at Houston’s George Bush Intercontinental Airport, the NTSB described a troubling scene.
Passengers were evacuated via slides and stairs last year from the jetliner after an engine problem during takeoff caused smoke and fire on the right wing.
Despite the flight attendant telling passengers to remain seated, several began shouting, “fire on the engine, let me get out!” That trigged “widespread panic" and prompted many passengers to get up and start retrieving their belongings. Some climbed over seats and began obstructing the aisle.
Three large men insisted the evacuation occur, pushing past a flight attendant and going down a slide before it had fully deployed – causing it to deflate and become unusable.
“Cabin crew training emphasizes assertive command presence and passenger control during evacuations; however, this event demonstrates how rapidly escalating passenger behavior can affect evacuation dynamics even in the absence of confirmed fire or smoke conditions,” according to the report.
The incident in Denver came a day after a Delta Air Lines employee was killed while on the job at the Orlando International Airport. In a statement, the airline said the employee was killed Thursday night without providing details of the incident or the name of the employee.
“We are focused on extending our full support to family and taking care of our Orlando team during this difficult time,” the airline said. “We are working with local authorities as a full investigation gets underway to determine what occurred.”
AP reporter John Raby contributed from Charleston, West Virginia.
Frontier Airlines jetliner number n646fr sits outside the airlines technical operations center with other jetliners in for service north of Denver International Airport Saturday, May 9, 2026, in Denver. (AP Photo/David Zalubowski)
Frontier Airlines jetliner number n646fr sits outside the airlines technical operations center with other jetliners in for service north of Denver International Airport Saturday, May 9, 2026, in Denver. (AP Photo/David Zalubowski)
Frontier Airlines jetliner number n646fr sits outside the airlines technical operations center with other jetliners in for service north of Denver International Airport Saturday, May 9, 2026, in Denver. (AP Photo/David Zalubowski)
