Taylor Fritz’s comeback wins him a few CFs at Wimbledon | ATP Tour

Wimbledon

Fritz’s great comeback is worth a few CFs at Wimbledon

The No. 13 seed will face Musetti for a place in the semifinals

July 08, 2024

Taylor Fritz is the big name on Monday at Wimbledon. The American achieved one of the biggest victories of his career in the incomparable setting of Centre Court at the All England Club.

On the British grass, the No. 13 seed overcame a two-sets-to-love deficit in the fourth round against Alexander Zverev 4-6, 6-7(4), 6-4, 7-6(3), 6-3 in three hours and 29 minutes.

“It was amazing to do this on Centre Court, to come back from two sets down,” Fritz said in the post-match interview. “I felt like I was playing good tennis and it was just a matter of a few points. I thought I could go set by set and turn it around.” And so I did.

This is the third time in his career that Fritz has managed to turn around a match in which he was on the ropes at a Grand Slam, with his opponent dominating the first two sets. He had previously done so against the eldest Zverev brother, Mischa Zverev, in the first round of the 2018 US Open and in the second round of the 2020 Australian Open against Kevin Anderson.

The victory allows her to reach the Wimbledon quarter-finals for the second time in the last three years (2022, 2024), a round she has also reached once at the Australian Open and once at the US Open, her best mark in a Grand Slam.

The American avenged his 2018 defeat to Zverev in five sets in the second round of Wimbledon. He also closed the gap in the Lexus ATP Head2Head against the German (5-4) and equalled their head-to-head this season (1-1).

And he had everything against him. Not only because of the two sets against him, but also because his opponent was one of the two players who had won the most matches this year (40), only surpassed by Jannik Sinner, and he came with the confidence of having made it to the final of Roland Garros.

Solidity on serve helped the two-time Nitto ATP Finals champion open up a significant gap on the scoreboard to go 6-4, 7-6(4) without giving the American a break point and even going 4-4 ​​up in the third set. But Fritz did not stop believing in his chances and took advantage of the first opening the German left open to take the third set.

The American also held on in the fourth set to force a tie-break, where he returned the favor to Zverev. And he ended up winning the mental battle. At 26 years old, he finished with 67 winners and only 23 unforced errors. His ability to recover earned him a ticket to the quarter-finals, where Lorenzo Musetti awaits him.

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The 25th-seeded Italian has never been this far in a Grand Slam. He defeated lucky loser Giovanni Mpetshi Perricard 4-6, 6-3, 6-3, 6-2 in two hours and three minutes on Monday.

The Lexus ATP Head2Head between Fritz and Musetti has gone in favour of the American, although the only previous match this season went to the Italian at the ATP Masters 1000 in Monte Carlo (clay).

Whoever wins next Wednesday will continue to write an unprecedented story at Wimbledon.

Did you know…?

With Taylor Fritz and Tommy Paul advancing to the Wimbledon quarterfinals, it is the first time that the tournament has had two or more Americans represent in this round since 2000. That year, Andre Agassi, Jan-Michael Gambill and Pete Sampras advanced.