Taylor Fritz withdraws from Paris with abdominal injury, opens Turin door for Casper Ruud and others

America’s Taylor Fritz has been forced to withdraw from the Paris Masters with an abdominal injury and looks set to more than likely miss the rest of the season.

Fritz, 26, looked in considerable pain during his straight sets first-round victory over Sebastian Baez on Monday and as a result has been forced to withdraw.

“It’s something that’s been bothering me for a little bit… I didn’t think it was anything too bad going in [to this match], but one where I slid out and sliced that forehand, I felt like I did something that I had never done to it before,” Fritz said after the match.

“Like maybe I tore something or pulled it. So I’m going to have to get it checked out and see what’s going on.”

Although it hasn’t been confirmed how long he will be out for, with so little left of the season it could bring his 2023 to an end.

It also means he will probably miss the ATP Finals in Turin as he would have to travel injured as an alternate, which seems unlikely.

It keeps the race for the final spots in Turin extremely interesting, with a number of players gunning for the final two places.

Novak Djokovic, Carlos Alcaraz, Daniil Medvedev, Jannik Sinner and Andrey Rublev are all booked in, with Stefanos Tsitsipas all but certain to be the sixth name.

That means that Alexander Zverev and Holger Rune are under pressure in seventh and eighth respectively.

Zverev is on 3,540 points with Rune on 3,290. Just behind them is Hubert Hurkacz on 3,110. With Fritz out the next player closest to Hurkacz is Casper Ruud on 2,825 followed by Tommy Paul on 2,665, Alex De Minaur on 2,605 and Karen Khachanov on 2,340.

The rest of the ATP 1000 event should be particularly interesting given so many of the players mentioned above are on course to meet each other in the latter rounds should they progess.

Fritz’s opponent for the next round Daniel Altmaier will now face the winner of Rune and Dominic Thiem in the third round after he was given a walkover.