Ben Shelton and Taylor Fritz represent the USA with Wimbledon victories on July 4

WIMBLEDON, England – Ben Shelton and Taylor Fritz kept the American men’s singles in check on Independence Day at Wimbledon, but fifth-seeded Jessica Pegula fell to Wang Xinyu in the second round.

Shelton may have experienced déjà vu on Thursday when he won a five-set match for the second time on Court 18. There, raucous US fans cheered the 21-year-old on as he beat South African Lloyd Harris 4-6, 7-6 (7-5), 6-7 (7-5), 6-3, 7-6 (10-7) with some superb shots.

The Floridian said he thrives in the high-intensity moments of tiebreaks, and it showed. Harris served an ace to make it 7-6 in the final set tiebreak before collapsing, and Shelton held his nerve to take four points in a row and win the match after 3 hours and 49 minutes.

The left-hander attributes his confidence in high-pressure moments to being able to clear his head thanks to a plan not unlike that of Novak Djokovic. The Serbian champion has often said that he focuses on one thing in tiebreakers: getting every ball back.

“I know pretty much what I want to do in the tiebreaker: I want to get to the net before the other guy,” Shelton said. “I want to be aggressive on the baseline, but I’m not trying to score the winner. I just want to make the opponent make a pass – he has to hit the perfect return. He has to hit the perfect pass down the line or into the corner or hit the lob over my head, and if he can do that, I walk away. … I prefer that to playing a passive game and letting the other guy attack me.”

Shelton, seeded 14th, will face Canadian Denis Shapovalov in his first Wimbledon third round appearance.

Fritz, the 13th seed, beat Arthur Rinderknech 6-3, 6-4, 3-6, 6-4 before wishing the Frenchman “a safe flight home” in a testy post-match handshake. The pair have a history together dating back to last year’s French Open, when the crowd booed Fritz after he beat Rinderknech, the last Frenchman in the field. Fritz said Rinderknech “went out of his way to take a swipe at him” before Thursday’s match.

“I’ll say, ‘Dude, you know what you said. You know what you said,'” Fritz said. “Don’t disrespect me before the game and then expect me to be nice after the game. That’s not how it works.”

In the third round, Fritz will face 24th seeded Chilean Alejandro Tabilo.

Elsewhere at the All England Club, top seed Iga Swiatek defeated Petra Martic 6-4, 6-3 to set up a women’s third round meeting with Yulia Putintseva. The Polish star will be looking to build on her quarterfinals from last year, something she has yet to reach at Wimbledon.

However, reaching the third round is nothing new for her – with Thursday’s victory she reached this stage for the 18th time in a row at a Grand Slam.

“I don’t look as far into the horizon as I do with statistics. I take everything step by step and every match counts for me,” Swiatek said. “It’s not like I go into the first rounds of the Grand Slams knowing that I have to win or that I should take it for granted. I’m ready to fight even in the first rounds. Yes, I’m definitely happy that I’m consistent.”

No. 4 seed Alexander Zverev advanced with a 6-2, 6-1, 6-4 win over unseeded American Marcos Giron. Djokovic had only one minor lapse in winning his second-round match against wildcard Jacob Fearnley 6-3, 6-4, 5-7, 7-5. Fearnley, following in the footsteps of fellow Briton Cameron Norrie and playing college tennis at TCU, had the Centre Court crowd on his side. But No. 2 seed Djokovic has just a touch more experience than the 22-year-old.

In the third round, the 24-time Grand Slam champion will face Australian Alexei Popyrin, who continues to play with a protective sleeve over his right knee after undergoing surgery last month to repair a torn medial meniscus.

Wang defeated Pegula 6-4, 6-7 (9-7), 6-1 before the American rebounded with a win in the women’s doubles with Coco Gauff.