Taylor Fritz will long be remembered for his Indian Wells crown in 2022. 

It was the first time an American man won in Tennis Paradise since Andre Agassi 21 years earlier, and in the final, Fritz topped another of the game’s all-time greats, Rafael Nadal. 

If that isn’t enough, a then 20th-ranked Fritz beat Nadal while competing with an injured ankle that needed tending to before the final. 

Indeed, when the showpiece match started, he didn’t know if the ankle would hold up. But it did. 

Earlier in the tournament, Fritz snuck out a pair of third-set tiebreaks against Nadal’s mentee, Jaume Munar, and Alex de Minaur. 

So no wonder Fritz — whose win was even more special since he hails from California — was happy to discuss the career changing week with reporters on Tuesday. 

“It was an amazing week,” said Fritz, who later on Tuesday won the Eisenhower Cup for a second straight time with Elena Rybakina. “I had a lot of battles in the tournament. So many times someone kind of just gets out of some close matches, like a third-set breaker here and there, and then you just have that confidence. 

“I was playing the big points really well and then you just go on and take a title,” added the 28-year-old, who went 4-0 in tiebreaks during that momentous 2022 edition. 

“I feel like I was playing really good tennis to start that year. I felt confident, I felt like I had a lot to prove back then to myself, because I wasn't ranked as high, but I felt like my level was there, and it was, yeah, one of the best, if not the best, week of my career.”

Fritz has made a quarterfinal and two fourth rounds in Indian Wells since, falling short of his always lofty ambitions. 

However, it took eventual champion Jack Draper to knock him out last year and a then-ranked No. 7 Holger Rune in 2024. 

In his title defense, a player who would go on to dominate in stretches — Jannik Sinner — downed Fritz. 

Just how confident Fritz currently is remains to be seen given his turbulent start to 2026. 

He has been managing a knee injury and said the knee felt particularly bad after a third-round win against Stan Wawrinka at the Australian Open. His oblique was also “killing him” against Wawrinka. 

He exited in the next round against Lorenzo Musetti. 

Fritz still competed in Dallas and Delray Beach in February but opted to skip Acapulco — where he had played in three of the previous four seasons. 

“I kind of gave myself some time to rest and have a good training week in LA, and just get out here nice and early and start getting ready,” said Fritz. 

“So the next couple of days are going to be really important to kind of figure out the conditions and get used to the courts, but I think I'm feeling pretty good.”

The emphasis for Fritz nowadays is to make sure he is as healthy as possible when competing, a slight shift from his early days on tour. 

“I feel like kind of just an entirely different career almost the last couple of years from the first five or six I was on tour,” he said. “Still always trying to learn and pick up on new stuff.

“Now it's more of a battle with, I'd say, physically just being there as opposed to before it was more about being able to practice and always continue to improve and put all the time in on court… the level is going to be there. I just need to be physically able to give everything in matches.”

After a bye, Fritz starts against the magician-esque Damir Dzumhur or former Texas Christian University stalwart Jacob Fearnley.