Taylor Fritz has just made his intentions about the ATP Finals very clear with his latest decision

Taylor Fritz is among the players vying for a highly coveted spot at the ATP Finals, which take place in Turin next month.

His grand plans suffered a major setback at the Shanghai Masters, with Fritz losing to Stefanos Tsitsipas in the third round of the ATP Masters 1000 tournament in China. The 11th seed beat Matteo Arnaldi 7-5, 6-4 in his opening match, but lost 6-3, 5-7, 3-6 to Tsitsipas shortly after. However, the American has wasted no time in trying his best to get his ATP Finals ambitions back on track by adding to his schedule.

Taylor Fritz confirmed for Lyon as he chases ATP Finals spot

Fritz had already confirmed his post-US Open schedule, but he has since added two more tournaments to his calendar. He is set to play at the Stockholm Open in Sweden, but much more significantly has just been added to the Lyon Open entry list.

Both are ATP 250 events, but crucially the Lyon tournament arrives before the ATP Masters 1000 Paris, the end of which represents the cut-off for ATP Finals ranking points. Fritz is, therefore, clearly aiming to land a place at the year-end event in Italy by enjoying a lengthy stay in Lyon.

The American has another chance for success immediately afterwards, with Fritz confirmed to play Basel, which also arrives before the Paris Masters. Lyon is scheduled for 19-25 October, Basel is 26 October to 1 November, and Paris is 2-8 November. The very busy period will arrive after a disappointing spell for Fritz, who lost his opening match at the Japan Open before his early exit in Shanghai.

The race for the ATP Finals is certainly heating up, but unfortunately for Fritz there hasn’t exactly been much good news of late. He occupies 13th place in the Race to Turin rankings, with the top eight players set to qualify for the tournament. One boost is that Jannik Sinner, who had already qualified, won’t play after ending his season early. And there was another positive after Novak Djokovic lost early in Shanghai, with the Serbian 10th in the rankings.

But worryingly, Rafael Jodar is two places ahead of Fritz in the standings, and the Spaniard has just secured a quarterfinal place at the tournament. But he isn’t the only one. Tommy Paul has moved above his compatriot in the list to 12th place after making the quarterfinals, while eighth-place Daniil Medvedev has also reached that stage. It certainly doesn’t look good for Fritz right now, but he clearly isn’t giving up hope just yet.