Wimbledon 2024: American Taylor Fritz loses to Lorenzo Musetti after forcing the deciding set

In the fight for the first Grand Slam semifinal, Lorenzo Musetti defeated Taylor Fritz in five sets and moved into the next round at Wimbledon.

Musetti was able to defeat Fritz even after the American forced a fifth set, with the Italian taking the win by a score of 3-6, 7-6(5), 6-2, 3-6, 6-1.

Things started well for Fritz, winning four of the first five games against Musetti, who looked tense and hesitant on court, and taking the first set easily. Had things continued like that, it would have been a short match.

But Musetti recovered pretty quickly in the second set and gave Fritz a real fight. He took the lead for the first time at 2-1 and kept forcing Fritz to catch up. The confidence from Fritz’s first set win was not lost, but he took a lot of punishment. He managed to force Musetti into a tiebreak, which he then lost without much drama.

With the score tied at 1-1, Fritz and Musetti essentially started over, playing best-of-three. But the momentum Musetti had built in that hard-fought second set continued in the third. He had Fritz under pressure right away, winning the first two games and overtaking Fritz’s victories in games three and seven to take the set and a 2-1 lead.

Fritz, who had become increasingly frustrated with his box during the first three sets, went to the dressing room during the break between sets three and four and changed completely. He might have been drenched in sweat, or maybe he just wanted to get rid of the smell of the last few sets.

Either way, it helped him at the start of the fourth set. Fritz won the first game and then secured a 3-2 lead. The 26-year-old American then continued his momentum and won the fourth set 6-3, forcing a deciding set.

But Musetti outlasted Fritz and won five games in a row to start the set. Fritz went down after a low shot in the seventh game and held his knee. However, he got up a moment later and was able to continue playing. Immediately afterwards, Musetti took the match point and won the game.

With the win, Musetti moves into the semifinals, his best result since joining the tour in 2020. The 22-year-old Italian will now face Novak Djokovic, who advanced after his opponent Alex de Minaur withdrew due to injury.