Taylor Fritz is feeling for fellow American Reilly Opelka as he admits “it is awful” to see the big-serving American being out for an extended period due to injury. Opelka, a former world No 17, hasn’t played since losing to Nick Kyrgios at the Citi Open in Washington, in early August.
After Washington, Opelka pulled out of the remainder of the North American hard-court swing and decided to undergo a hip surgery. “It’s awful. He started last year really strong. He was playing really good tennis. It sucks. It could happen to any of us at any time.
You never know when you can be out for 8 months. It’s really sad to see. He’s one of my best friends. I look forward to seeing him. Haven’t gotten to spend a ton of time with him because he hasn’t been at tournaments,” Fritz said, per Tennis Up To Date.
Fritz is competing at this week’s Dallas event
Fritz, who is enjoying a career-high ranking of No 8 in the world, is also the top-ranked American male tennis player at the moment. This week, Fritz is the top-seeded player at an ATP 250 event in Dallas.
After a first-round bye in Dallas, Fritz will start his campaign at the tournament from the round-of-16. This week, Fritz is hoping to make a strong Dallas run and forget what happened at the Australian Open. After a career-best season in 2022, Fritz was hoping to make his big Grand Slam breakthrough at the start of the 2023 season.
Unfortunately for Fritz, that didn’t happen as he suffered a shock Australian Open second-round defeat against Alexei Popyrin. For Fritz, it was a second consecutive disappointing Grand Slam result. In late August, Fritz picked up a shock defeat to Brandon Holt in the US Open first round.
Fritz is now a top-10 player and is considered one of the best players in the game. Fritz has spoken several times about his desire to become a Grand Slam champion one day.
