ATP Australian Open Grand Slam
Fritz cites short off-season and knee recovery for sluggish start at Australian Open
Fritz advanced in four sets, blamed a four-week off-season and gave an update on his knee.
Taylor Fritz opened the season carrying a knee issue and suggested the brief off-season is contributing to a spate of early injuries at the Australian Open. He moved into the second round with a 7-6 (5), 5-7, 6-1, 6-3 victory over Valentin Royer but acknowledged he did not arrive at full strength.
“Maybe the season is too long, I don’t know,” Fritz said sarcastically after advancing past Valentin Royer, 7-6 (5), 5-7, 6-1, 6-3. “Maybe four weeks isn’t enough to fully get healthy of all injuries.
“You know, it is what it is. You know, I think I laid a lot of groundwork in the off-season to get healthy. But at the same time the off-season is so short, you need to be like training hard in the off-season or else you come into the year feeling like you’ve not played enough matches or had enough time on court, which is very much how I feel.
“Yeah, I mean, it’s tough when, you know, we have an off-season that kind of forces you where you have to be healthy in it to train or else you’re kind of in a bad spot to start the season. It’s not the best situation.”
Fritz, the No. 9 seed, said he played more freely after the second set and that the match length tested his fitness after a United Cup campaign in which the knee was visibly affected.
“When I came out for the third, I was just much more calm and relaxed and my mind was just working a lot more clearly,” the No. 9 seed said in his post-match press conference. “I felt like just my decision-making was so much better.
“I knew what shots to hit. I wasn’t, like, going over in my head as I’m hitting a shot what I should do like I was the first two sets. I just felt very, like, calm and confident. I really felt like myself the last two sets.”
On his physical status ahead of a second-round meeting with Vit Kopriva, Fritz gave a cautious update.
“There’s been some pretty big improvements in my knee,” Fritz confirmed. “That was the goal to start feeling that about a little over two months into this, the program of strengthening the tendon. But, you know, I’m way better than I expected to be after how I felt my first week or so in Australia. Yeah, I didn’t expect to be able to play, I guess, the physicality and the length of the match I played today and actually not have my knee feel like awful right now. It’s really promising.
“But unfortunately, there were some other injuries that popped up this week kind of when I was getting ready, which sucks. I don’t want to get into it too much. I might talk about it after the tournament. But I’m kind of just having to feel it as I go because it’s something I’ve dealt with before, so I, you know, am familiar with it.”
Fritz also described a familiar off-court ritual with fellow Americans during the event. “It makes sense in Australia, because it’s like we start the year, there’s some time before the tournament,” Fritz said. “You know, a lot of us haven’t seen each other because of off-season and stuff like that. So, you know, we always do it here.
“I don’t have every American guy’s number. And there’s new guys that come up. So, I put six or seven of the guys in the group chat, and everyone is invited. I’m getting the big table.”
ATP
Sinner’s serve numbers reveal a mixed picture despite his dominance
Sinner’s serve stats show elite power, but his first-serve percentage still leaves room for growth.
Jannik Sinner’s serve has long been viewed as a major part of his rise to the top of the men’s game, yet the numbers from the past year tell a more complicated story.
The world No 1 adjusted his service motion shortly before he began establishing himself as a leading force on the ATP Tour, and that weapon stood out again when he defended his Wimbledon title earlier this month.
After losing the US Open final to Carlos Alcaraz last September, Sinner made it clear that he wanted more variety and consistency on serve. His own words at the time showed how deliberate that change was:
“I can say that I’m gonna become a better tennis player and I’m gonna change a couple of things on the serve, just small things, but, they can make big differences and then we see how it goes,” said Sinner. after that defeat against Alcaraz in New York.
“I’m looking forward to play these matches again, something new is now that I’m not No 1 anymore. Now you chase, it’s different.
“Maybe I will lose some matches from now on, but I will try to do some changes, trying to be a bit more unpredictable as a player and because I think that’s what I have to do, trying to become a better tennis player.”
Even with his strong recent run, the ATP Tour figures for the last 12 months show that there is still work to be done in one area. Sinner ranks 35th in first serve percentage at 63.8%, well behind Alexander Zverev, who leads the list at 72.5%.
The Italian, however, is far more dominant once the first serve lands. He leads the tour in service points won at 80.9%, just ahead of Reilly Opelka on 80.8% and Taylor Fritz on 79.7%.
He also tops service games won at 92.9%, underlining how difficult he is to break. Opelka follows on 90.6%, with Ben Shelton third at 90.4% and Alcaraz at 89.9%.
One remaining area is ace production. Sinner is 27th in that category with an average of 8.2 per match, while Opelka leads with 18.5, followed by Giovanni Mpetshi Perricard on 15.1 and Fritz on 14.1.
ATP
Sinner climbs to No 4 on all-time prize money list after Wimbledon defence
Sinner’s Wimbledon defence lifts him to No 4 on the all-time prize money list in 2026.
Jannik Sinner’s successful Wimbledon title defence brought more than another major trophy. It also lifted the Italian to No 4 on the all-time career prize money list.
Before Wimbledon 2026, Sinner sat at No 6, with Novak Djokovic, Rafael Nadal and Roger Federer occupying the top three spots and Alexander Zverev and Carlos Alcaraz positioned above him. Zverev had recently passed both Alcaraz and Sinner after his French Open run, but the order shifted again once Sinner collected $4,830,756 (£3,600,000) for his latest Wimbledon triumph.
That result leaves Sinner close to becoming only the fourth player to move beyond $70m in career prize money. He has already earned $11,620,364 in 2026 and is on track to break the $20m barrier for the first time in a season.
His rise has been rapid. Last year, he took in $19,120,641, a total that included a record $5,071,000 for winning the ATP Finals undefeated. He finished second on the 2025 earnings list behind Alcaraz, who made $21,354,778, after leading the way in 2024 with $19,735,703.
At the end of the 2024 season, Sinner stood on $37,238,688. Since the start of the 2025 campaign, he has added another $32,347,873. From just $36 in prize money in his first professional year, he now sits on $69,586,561.
Zverev is fifth with $68,392,312, while Alcaraz is on $64,997,598 after not adding to his tally since April because of injury. Andy Murray has fallen to No 7 on $64,687,542, with Daniil Medvedev eighth on $52,192,594. Djokovic, Sinner, Zverev, Alcaraz and Medvedev are the only active players to have passed $40m.
Djokovic remains far ahead in first place with $194,656,816, including $3,000,801 earned in 2026. Nadal is second on $134,946,100 and Federer third on $130,594,339.
ATP French Open Grand Slam
Auger-Aliassime Reaches Career-High No. 4 After Breakthrough at Roland Garros
Auger-Aliassime rises to No. 4 after best Roland Garros run, tying second-highest Canadian rank. Now
Felix Auger-Aliassime moved to a career-high No. 4 in the ATP rankings following his deepest run at Roland Garros, where the 25-year-old reached the quarterfinals for the first time before losing to eventual finalist Flavio Cobolli. The result completed a personal Grand Slam milestone: having previously reached the quarterfinals or better at the Australian Open, Wimbledon and the US Open, he became the first Canadian man to reach the quarterfinals or better at all four majors in his career.
The rise from No. 6 to No. 4 surpasses his prior best of No. 5 and places him tied for the second-highest-ranked Canadian in ATP or WTA rankings history. The only other Canadians to reach the top four are Milos Raonic and Bianca Andreescu. Raonic went as high as No. 3 in 2016, following his run to the Wimbledon final that year, and Andreescu peaked at No. 4 in 2019 after winning the US Open.
Canadian tennis has seen seven players reach the top 10 in either ATP or WTA history, with official rankings available since 1973 for the ATP and 1975 for the WTA.
Auger-Aliassime still has ground to cover to move higher in the standings. He is 2,865 points behind the current world No. 3, Alexander Zverev, with the rankings showing Zverev at 7,305 points and Auger-Aliassime at 4,440.
The Canadian will shift his focus to grass. He begins his grass-court season this week at the ATP 250 event in ‘s-Hertogenbosch, entering as the No. 1 seed. After a first-round bye he will open against either Hubert Hurkacz or Marton Fucsovics.
The new ranking reflects a season of important progress for Auger-Aliassime and cements his place among the highest-ranked Canadians in modern tennis history.
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