American Taylor Fritz fails in her attempt to reach the semifinals of a Grand Slam tournament for the first time in Wimbledon

Taylor Fritz had the unique opportunity to reach his first Grand Slam semifinal at Wimbledon.

The American, seeded 13th, was the better seeded man compared to 25th-seeded Lorenzo Musetti and the favorite to reach the Final Four.

But Fritz could not win his second five-set title in a row and lost to Musetti after 3.5 hours with 3:6, 7:6, 6:2, 3:6 and 6:1.

Musetti – not Fritz – will face No. 2 and 24-time Grand Slam champion Novak Djokovic in the semifinals on Friday. The Serb is 5-1 up against Musetti.

Musetti is the only Italian in the semifinals after No. 1 Jannik Sinner lost to No. 5 Daniil Medvedev in the quarterfinals. The Russian will face defending champion and No. 3 Carlos Alcaraz in the first semifinal on Friday.

“I’m probably at a loss for words, but I’m doing my best,” said Musetti, 22. “I don’t think I’ve realized what I’ve done yet.”

He added of Djokovic: “He is a legend… It has always been a huge fight, so I expect a really, really big fight and I think it will be one of the toughest challenges, but I am an ambitious guy and I like challenges, so I will do my best, I will try to give 100% and let’s see what happens.”

Djokovic made it into the semifinals without a fight after Australian Alex De Minaur withdrew due to a hip injury sustained in his fourth-round match against Arthur Fils.

It has been 82 tournaments since the last Grand Slam tournament won by the Americans (Andy Roddick at the 2003 US Open).

Fritz was seeking to become only the fourth American in the last 15 years to reach the Wimbledon semifinals, following Roddick (2009), Sam Querrey (2017) and John Isner (2018). The last American to win Wimbledon was Pete Sampras in 2000.

Musetti started hesitantly and Fritz secured an early break in the first set to make it 3-1. The American then closed the first set with an ace on the T.

Fritz then managed a break to 1-0 in the second set when Musetti hit a forehand shot too far.

Musetti won the second set tiebreak with a winner on his second serve that Fritz hit into the net.

After Musetti won the third set comfortably, he hit a long forehand on Fritz’s set point in the fourth set, forcing a fifth set.

But in the fifth set, Musetti took the lead and went 4-0 up with a double break, hitting a winning backhand slice into the open court.

When Musetti served with the score at 5:1 and 30:15, Fritz’s knee gave way and he fell to the court.

Musetti concluded his first Grand Slam semifinal with his serve.

“I think I played a fantastic match because Taylor was really in top form,” Musetti said. “I’m really, really happy to be here in my first semifinal.”