Taylor Fritz achieves a Wimbledon miracle in the fourth round against Alexander Zverev

July 8, 2024

So there is still hope for American men’s tennis. The last American winner at Wimbledon was Pete Sampras in 2000. That was something of a golden age for American tennis, because Sampras was not the only one to win many Grand Slams (Andre Agassi did too). Since then, American men have not achieved much, apart from Andy Roddick.

That could change. Tommy Paul was already in the quarterfinals before Taylor Fritz’s match against Alexander Zverev. The two players had previously faced each other eight times, with the German winning five. However, they had alternated in the last seven meetings, so it was logical that Fritz would now be the winner, right?

Only the match started differently. Zverev had injured his knee a little in the previous round and his leg was bandaged, but he did not seem overly hampered. He served perfectly, outplayed Fritz in the longer rallies and won the first two sets. The American seemed to be on a decent run at Wimbledon, but then lost to a player who was mostly superior to him.

Instead, Fritz managed a late break in the third set, forcing a fourth. The next set was classic tennis. Each player served the other and the set went to a tiebreak. However, Fritz dominated the tiebreak early on, so a fifth set seemed inevitable.

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There was still a chance that Zverev could pull through. He has won more big matches than the American, but the German’s fitness also seemed to be slipping a little while Fritz kept hanging on. In the end, it was the American’s serve that stole the win. He managed an early break against Zverev in the fifth set and only had to hold serve. He did that with ease for the most part.

Fritz will now play against Italian Lorenzo Musetti in the quarterfinals. The American has already played Musetti three times, including at Wimbledon 2022, and Fritz has won twice. There is even a possibility that Taylor Fritz will face Tommy Paul in an all-American final. Nobody would have expected that.