Taylor Fritz recovered from a mid-match lull during which he was treated by a trainer for a foot problem and reached the Wimbledon semifinals for the first time with a 6-3, 6-4, 1-6, 7-6 (4) victory over Karen Khachanov on Tuesday.
He’s the first American man to reach that stage of the grass-court Slam since John Isner in 2018.
The No. 5-seeded Fritz, who was runner-up at last year’s US Open, came in with a 1-4 record in major quarterfinals, 0-2 at Wimbledon. He’ll now meet either two-time defending champion Carlos Alcaraz of Spain or unseeded Cam Norrie of Britain for a berth in the final.
“It’s an amazing feeling,” Fritz said. “Having played the quarterfinals here twice and lost in five twice I don’t think I could have taken another one.”
Fritz has been rolling since the calendar flipped to the grass-court season, with a 13-1 record on the surface that included a pair of titles at Stuttgart and Eastbourne. That’s the most grass wins on the ATP Tour and the most by any American man in a season since the start of 1990, when the ATP Tour was formed.
Fritz powered his way to a big early lead against No. 17 Khachanov, taking 40 of his 47 service points across the initial two sets and never facing a break chance in that span.
But then two-time major semifinalist Khachanov grabbed eight of nine games. It was during that stretch that Fritz took a medical timeout, removing his right shoe and sock so the trainer could retape his foot.
Khachanov broke to begin the fourth set, in a game in which Fritz’s top serve was 117 mph, 18 mph slower than his fastest of the match to that point. He looked up at his guest box and tapped his racket against his thighs, perhaps indicating that he was dealing with some fatigue.
From 2-0 down in the fourth, though, Fritz began to regain his strength and touch, and he was just two points from victory a total of three times while up 5-4 and 6-5. But Khachanov got things to the tiebreaker, where the score was 4-all, before Fritz claimed the final trio of points.
“I’ve never really had the match change like that so drastically where I felt so in control, playing great, serving great,” Fritz said. “I didn’t feel like my serve was in danger, I felt like I was putting a lot of pressure on his serve.
“I felt like I couldn’t miss and then, out of nowhere, I just started making a ton of mistakes. So I really just had to fight to get that break back in the fourth and kind of just get the match back to neutral.”
Fritz finished with 16 aces and reached a top speed of 138 mph by the end.
Khachanov, never past the quarterfinals at Wimbledon, fell to 0-11 in Grand Slam matches against opponents ranked in the top five.
Fritz joins Frances Tiafoe and Ben Shelton as the only American men to make multiple major semifinal appearances. But Fritz is the first active American man to reach the semifinals or better at a non-hardcourt major.
Shelton will be looking to join him on Wednesday, if he can get past world No. 1 Jannik Sinner. The last Wimbledon to feature two American men in the semifinals was 2000 (Pete Sampras and Andre Agassi).
The U.S. hasn’t had a male Wimbledon finalist since Andy Roddick in 2009.
Fritz is chasing his first Grand Slam title — and Wimbledon hasn’t produced a first-time major champion since Roger Federer in 2003. The run of 20 straight Wimbledons without a first-time major champion is the longest streak in tournament history.
ESPN Research, The Associated Press and Reuters contributed to this report.
