Taylor Fritz has been battling injury concerns for months, yet the American has chosen to keep competing instead of stepping away. However, at the DC Open, his lingering knee issues flared up again, leaving him in visible pain and forcing him to call for a medical timeout mid-match.

Fritz was up against Alex Michelsen during the quarterfinal clash at the Citi DC Open. The match was on a knife-edge at 2-2 in the third set when Fritz experienced a sharp pain in his knee and called for medical assistance.

“It’s good. I tweaked it. It was my left knee”, said Fritz during his on-court interview. “I did exactly the same thing I did today to my right knee in Dallas. It’s just kind of like a… jam it, ball goes behind me, I slide into a corner, and it’s a really sharp pain. “But the thing is, it can go away pretty quickly. But if I didn’t call the trainer right at that moment, I would, for sure, get broken in that game”.

The knee injury has become a chronic condition for Fritz throughout 2026, hampering his early hard-court results, including at the Australian Open. The American is known to play a stacked schedule, but the severity of the injury and the toll of taking anti-inflammatory medication had the final say, as Fritz played only one clay-court match this year, losing in the first round of the French Open.

The knee trouble has lingered for months. After developing tendinitis late last season, the 28-year-old was forced to spend two months on the sidelines following the Miami Masters earlier this year.

However, Fritz got his form back on the grass, reaching two Tour-level finals at Halle and Stuttgart, but lost to compatriots Frances Tiafoe and Ben Shelton. But his injury woes persisted as the American withdrew from Eastbourne before Wimbledon, an event he had won four times.

All fears were realized in the high-profile clash against Alexander Zverev during the Wimbledon quarterfinal, when Fritz had to take a medical timeout for treatment of his knee injury, which had reared its ugly head once again. Against Zverev, a physically compromised Fritz had no answer.

Just like he could not put up much of a fight at SW19, Fritz needed the medical timeout to be at his best against Michelsen in DC, as the younger American was putting his veteran compatriot to the sword.

Taylor Fritz had to save a match point to reach the semifinal in Washington

When Fritz won the first set 6-1 in under thirty minutes against Michelsen, it looked like it would be a short day in the office for the third seed. However, younger American started to play well in the second set, getting an early break, but Fritz got the break back. Michelsen was not to be denied as he broke again to win the second set 6-4.

With Michelsen playing well and his knee troubling him, Fritz was facing a tough challenge. One would think that the former US Open runner-up was on a clock to finish the match so he could get the rest needed to manage his injury, but he could not find an opening in the Michelsen serve and instead had to save a few break points himself.

When Michelsen got the first mini-break to go 2-0 up in the tiebreak, the end seemed near for Fritz, but the American rallied back to get to 5-6, where he saved a match point on his serve. Having saved the match point, Fritz’s experience took over as he won the next two points to win the match.

This is not the first time Fritz has saved match points to win a match this season, having done so against Ben Shelton in Halle. The American will hope to get as much rest as possible as he will go up against another compatriot, Brandon Nakashima, in the semifinal, with the latter coming on the back of a victory against the defending champion, Alex de Minaur.