Lorenzo Musetti beats Taylor Fritz and faces Novak Djokovic at Wimbledon

That would be the sound of an Italian battle cry: “Forza!”

Court No. 1 is used to seeing plenty of “Forza!” being thrown from the stands at this tournament. For example, on Wednesday, number 25 seed Lorenzo Musetti surprised number 13 seed Taylor Fritz with a 3:6, 7:6 (7:5), 6:2, 3:6, 6:1 triumph in the quarterfinals. This makes him only the fourth Italian to reach the semifinals at Wimbledon after Nicola Pietrangeli in 1960, Matteo Berrettini in 2021 and current number 1 Jannik Sinner last year.

He follows these men and, more recently, his compatriot Jasmine Paolini, who is seeded seventh here and who defeated American Emma Navarro in straight sets on Tuesday to become the first Italian to reach a Wimbledon semifinal.

Together, Musetti and Paolini ensured that this Wimbledon is only the second time that an Italian man and woman have reached the semifinals of a Grand Slam, the first being Paolini and Sinner at the French Open last month.

Paolini has advanced and will face Donna Vekic, who will play her first semifinal in her 43rd Grand Slam appearance on Thursday. Elena Rybakina of Kazakhstan will face Barbora Krejcikova of the Czech Republic in the other women’s semifinal on Thursday after winning the quarterfinals on Wednesday.

Musetti’s prize after his triumph – which took place in front of Queen Camilla, who walked over from the Royal Box on Centre Court and joined in the waving during play – is a meeting with tennis royalty. Novak Djokovic pulled out of the other men’s quarter-final on Wednesday without a fight when Australian Alex de Minaur retired with a hip injury.

There is a big difference in experience between the two men: Musetti, 22, will be playing the first Grand Slam semifinal of his career. Djokovic, 37, will equal Roger Federer’s record by appearing in his 13th men’s singles semifinal at Wimbledon.

“He probably knows the surface and the stadium better than I do, for sure,” said Musetti, expressing this understatement with a smile.

Musetti has had plenty of time to study the grass over the past ten days, although that is not necessarily a positive. The Italian’s win over Fritz was his second five-set match of the tournament and he goes into Friday’s clash having spent 15 hours and 53 minutes on court, while Djokovic will be comparatively fresh.

The Serb spent a whopping 10 hours and 6 minutes on court and had an extra day to rest his knee, which was operated on on June 5. He also has a career record of 5-1 against Musetti and recently defeated the youngster after trailing 2-1 at the French Open – three years after Djokovic came back to beat Musetti after the Italian was 2-0 up at Roland Garros and retired in the fifth set.

Maybe Musetti is even looking forward to playing against Djokovic on grass for a change.

On Wednesday he moved quite well in a fight in which Fritz rarely intentionally left the baseline.

Fritz was also fighting for his first Grand Slam semifinal berth and was the hottest player after winning the title at a grass-court warm-up tournament in Eastbourne, England, before heading to Wimbledon. Looking to ease the pain of a quarterfinal loss here in 2022, when he fell to Rafael Nadal in a tight five-set marathon, he said he was nervous in the opening set on Wednesday.

If he was nervous at the beginning, it didn’t show. The 26-year-old Californian started strongly and won the points with his good serves and crisp groundstrokes.

To his credit, Musetti tried to add some variety to his game against Fritz. The Italian is one of the few players on tour who uses a one-handed backhand, and he is able to mix in slices, drop shots and shots that change not only the tempo but also the shape of a rally.

In the first set, his touch was not skillful enough, as he kept letting the ball hit the net, but he didn’t let up. Ultimately, it frustrated Fritz.

“That’s probably something I can say I found worse than the other guys who didn’t all shoot the same,” Musetti said. “Especially against a good baseline player like Taylor, I can’t win a point if you play flat every time.”

Fritz said he was annoyed by the wind on Court No. 1 and found it difficult to implement his power game against Musetti’s varied shot selection. The American said earlier this week he prefers grass because it immediately rewards big shots and it is worth the risk of putting maximum power into a single groundstroke.

But due to the conditions affecting his serve and the subtle variation of the ball he received from Musetti, Fritz was unable to get going. Musetti didn’t have to play the cleanest match of his career. He just had to keep Fritz guessing.

“I felt like the most important thing is probably when I play against someone who plays like him, I really have to be able to set up and generate power, really pinpoint where I want to hit the shot,” Fritz said. “I have to be very precise because with the dead slices you can’t hit the ball as hard.”

Fritz will be looking to get back into shape for the Paris Olympics, which begin later this month, but said he was somewhat concerned about an injury he sustained at the French Open that hampers his sliding on clay more than on grass.

He said he had a hernia, which usually occurs in the groin or lower abdomen.

“It was much better because I don’t slide on grass,” said Fritz. “It’s more of an injury that really bothers me when I slide and often pulls my legs apart.”

Musetti, for his part, is looking forward to his seventh meeting with Djokovic, as he is more mature, experienced and accomplished than when they last met at the French Open. He described Wednesday’s victory as the best day of his career, a victory he attributed to all the lessons he has learned from losses to players like Djokovic in the past.

“Probably these losses against all the big champions made me think and work harder,” Musetti said. “Today’s win is probably the result. I think I can have a chance against (Djokovic) in the next round.”