Top-Ranked American Taylor Fritz Marches Into First Wimbledon Semifinal

Top-ranked American Taylor Fritz continues to make deep runs in the majors.

After reaching the U.S. Open final last summer, the world No. 5 has advanced to his first Wimbledon semifinal with a four-set win over No. 19 Karen Khachanov of Russia.

Fritz took out the Russian, 6-3, 6-4, 1-6, 7-6(4)) and will face the winner between No. 2 Carlos Alcaraz, the two-time defending champion, and Britain’s Cam Norrie in Friday’s semifinals.

“I’m feeling great to get through it,” said Fritz in his on-court interview. “I feel like the match was going so well for me for two sets. I’ve never had a match really just flip so quickly, so I’m really happy with how I came back in the fourth set and got it done. I think the momentum was definitely not going to have been on my side going into a fifth.”

Fritz will earn more than $1 million for making the semis. The runner up receives about $2 million and the winner about $4 million.

Khachanov had led Fritz 2-0 but they had not met since 2020.

Fritz dominated the first two sets on his serve before falling behind and letting the third set go.

In the tiebreak, Fritz hit a forehand approach up the line and then crushed a forehand overhead to seal the win.

“It’s an amazing feeling,” said Fritz. “Obviously having played the quarterfinals here twice and lost in five [sets] twice, I don’t think I could have taken another one. So I’m really happy I’m going to get to play the semis here.”

Fritz came into Wimbledon having won grass court warm-up tournaments in Stuttgart and Eastbourne, and he knows the expectations for him are high.

In the first round at Wimbledon, he trailed huge-serving Frenchman Giovanni Mpetshi Perricard two sets to love and then trailed 1-5 in the fourth-set tiebreak. He finished with 29 aces against just 2 double faults.

No American man has won Wimbledon since Pete Sampras in 2000, but John McEnroe believes the Americans are “closer than they’ve we’ve been in a while.”