US player Taylor Fritz celebrates after victory over Russia’s Karen Khachanov at the end of their … More
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.
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.
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.”