“If you play every day and you don’t have a break for yourself, to disconnect, that excitement kind of fades,” Carlos Alcaraz once said, and now Taylor Fritz is echoing that feeling.

The American moved into the second round of the 2026 Australian Open after a hard-fought win over Valentin Royer, surviving a scare after dropping the second set. Fritz eventually closed it out 7-6(5), 5-7, 6-1, 6-3 in a match that stretched beyond three hours. But even with the win, not everything felt perfect for the world No. 12.

Speaking afterwards in his press conference, the 28-year-old opened up about the toll of the calendar and the constant battle with injuries. Fritz arrived in Australia dealing with noticeable knee discomfort, and while he’s been able to compete without focusing on it too much, he admitted it’s something that’s clearly on his mind.

Fritz answered honestly, saying, “I think there’s been some pretty big improvements in my knee… that was the goal to start feeling that, a little over two months into this, the program of strengthening the tendon. But, I’m way better than I expected to be, after how I felt my first week or so in Australia.”

“But unfortunately, there were some other injuries that popped up this week… which sucks.” He added that he didn’t want to go into detail yet, explaining that it’s something he’s dealt with before and is still feeling out as the tournament goes on.

The interviewer then followed up by noting that everyone hopes to start the season feeling 100 percent fresh and asked whether dealing with physical issues so early was especially frustrating, and how Fritz was coping emotionally. That opened the door for him to zoom out and look at the bigger picture.

“Yeah, I mean, if you look at the tour, it’s not just me. There’s a lot of people starting the year with injuries,” Fritz said. “It’s, you know, maybe the season’s too long… Maybe four weeks isn’t enough to fully get healthy of all injuries. It is what it is.” It was a clear hint at his frustration with how relentless the tennis calendar can be. And he’s not alone.

Stefanos Tsitsipas has spoken about trying to rediscover his best tennis in 2026 after a back injury disrupted his previous season, though he did open his Australian Open campaign with a first-round win over Shintaro Mochizuki. Nick Kyrgios, meanwhile, has withdrawn from the men’s singles in Melbourne, also feeling underdone physically. Similar stories are playing out on the women’s side as well.

Taylor Fritz feels the same way about how tough it is to truly reset. He explained that while he put in a lot of work during the offseason to get healthy, the break itself is simply too short.

“Like I said, I think I laid a lot of groundwork in the offseason to get healthy, but at the same time, the offseason’s so short, you need to be training hard or else you come into the year not feeling like you’ve played enough matches or had enough time on court, which is very much how I feel,” he said.

The bigger issue, Fritz suggested, is the tennis calendar itself. The 2025 season basically began the moment 2024 ended, which is often the case in a sport where the offseason barely gives players any real time away.

Coco Gauff, the 2023 US Open champion, has said she feels the same. “I do, obviously, wish that the offseason was longer, 100%,” Gauff said. “But it is what it is.”

Denis Shapovalov, a 2021 Wimbledon semifinalist, has been even more blunt. “I wouldn’t say there is even an offseason anymore,” he said. “The season is never-ending.” And Taylor Fritz, too, has been raising concerns about this issue since last year.

Taylor Fritz calls out the ATP’s brutal schedule

Barely 4 months ago, Taylor Fritz spoke honestly about the good and bad sides of the expanded Masters events. “There are pros and cons,” the American said. “What I like the most is that there is a day of rest between each game. It is true that in Grand Slams we play five sets and it is necessary, but I think that here playing six games in six or seven days would be excessive.”

At the same time, he pointed out that the longer format adds more competition weeks. “In my opinion, if we played Masters 1000 of a week, we should not add other tournaments but increase the weeks available for the preseason.”

His comments reflect what many players have been feeling for a while now. More matches mean more travel, more pressure, and less time to truly rest.

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Alexander Zverev has also spoken up. The German didn’t hold back, saying the two-week Masters format is cutting into recovery time. He has urged the ATP to “really think about” whether the tour should move back to the old structure.

And it’s not just the Masters calendar causing frustration. A new rule introduced in 2025 has added another challenge for top players, making scheduling even tighter and more complicated.

Taylor Fritz himself said he’s feeling that pressure during the North American summer swing. He’s defending runner-up points at the U.S. Open and finds himself squeezed into playing Washington, Toronto, and Cincinnati back-to-back. But the break he needs simply isn’t there.

“There’s a new rule that says you have to play a certain number of 500 events or they put a zero on your record,” Fritz explained in a press conference. “Because I was injured earlier this year, I missed two 500s, so I had to play in Washington to meet my quota.”

Now, with more players skipping matches and injuries already piling up, the debate around tennis scheduling is only getting louder. So what do you think about the tense tennis scheduling?