Taylor Fritz overcame a third-set wobble and a medical timeout to beat Karen Khachanov 6-3, 6-4, 1-6, 7-6(4) in the Wimbledon quarterfinals on Tuesday.
The win sets up a last-four clash against the in-form Carlos Alcaraz and he couldn’t hide his delight to snap back from a poor third set to seal the win.
“I’m feeling great to get through it,” said Fritz. “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 felt I couldn’t miss and then all of a sudden I’m making a ton of mistakes. Momentum was definitely not going to be on my side going into a fifth.
“I’d say usually I do like to speak very technically, but in this situation, it was not so much. It was more like the first two sets, everything was going in. The third set, everything that was going in stopped going in (smiling). Then in the fourth set, I started putting balls in the court again.”
Fritz went on to suggest he had a better chance of competing with Alcaraz on his favoured grass courts, as he looked forward to Friday’s showdown.
“I’m happy that we’re not playing at the French Open on clay with the French Open balls ’cause that would be an absolute nightmare,” he added.
“Yeah, I think grass is very much so an equaliser. It can be an equaliser. So trust in how I’m playing. I truly know the way that I played the first two sets today, there’s not much any opponent on the other side can do.”
Fritz will not be thinking about the ATP Rankings for now, but this run at Wimbledon is a vital moment in his season.
After he won the grass court tournament at Eastbourne the week before his run at the All England Club, Fritz has now overtaken Britain’s Jack Draper in the live ATP Rankings and has moved back up to No 4.
He had been in that position for most of the last year, after his run to last year’s US Open final, where he lost against Jannik Sinner.
Draper’s second-round defeat at Wimbledon against Marin Cilic opened the door for Fritz to leap above him in the rankings and he has done that impressively thanks to his semi-final run.
Even if Fritz beats Alcaraz on Friday and goes on to win the Wimbledon title, he will not overtake Alexander Zverev at No 3 in the rankings next week.
Yet this run of form on grass is vital to Fritz as he will have plenty of ranking points to defend on hard courts from the start of August.
