Taylor Fritz avoids familiar major exit point to a higher-ranked foe with Zverev comeback

How does a tennis player get up a mountain he hasn’t succeeded in scaling before? If you’re Taylor Fritz against Alexander Zverev, you take it one step—or, in this case, one set—at a time.

The American found himself in a familiar place on Monday afternoon: Playing a mid-round match at a Gand Slam, versus a higher-ranked European opponent, and trailing badly. Novak Djokovic, Stefanos Tsitsipas, Rafael Nadal, Casper Ruud, Zverev himself: Fritz has faced them all in the quarters or the round of 16 at the majors over the last few years, and he has almost always walked away empty-handed. Was this as far his talent would take him?

For more than two hours on Monday, Fritz looked like he’d be packing his bags after the fourth round again. He was down two sets to love to Zverev, and seemed unable to take advantage of a knee issue that had the German moving gingerly whenever he had to make a long run. In fact, Zverev’s injury had actually benefited him, by forcing him to loosen up and try to end rallies faster. His aggression paid off in a series of baseline winners that gave him the break he needed in the first set, and the tiebreaker he needed in the second.

Zverev’s physical limitations also seemed to put a spotlight on Fritz’s limitations as a shot-maker. Try as he might, he couldn’t get Zverev on the move enough. In fact, attempting to exploit the injury only took Fritz out of his normal, see-ball-hit-ball game.

“Halfway through the first set I was trying to move the ball around a little more,” Fritz said. “I came out attacking going into his forehand probably a little too much. He was ready for it. He was hitting his forehand really well.”

The change came early in the third set, when Fritz lowered his expectations and focused not on winning the match, but on making sure he didn’t lose it in straight sets.

“I felt like I was playing really well for being down two sets,” Fritz said. “It would suck to play this well and lose in three straight, set let’s take the third. I felt like I could take it one set at a time and turn it around.”

This will be my first quarterfinal where I’m the more experienced person in Slam quarterfinals, having played Novak twice and Rafa once. Hopefully that will help me a little bit. —Taylor Fritz

If there was one shot where the match turned, it came with Fritz serving at 1-1 in the third set, down 0-30. He missed his first serve, and his second ball appeared to be going wide of the T. But at the last second it bent hard to the left and landed on the back of the line. Chalk flew up, and Fritz won the point to make it 15-30, instead of 0-40. From there, he held with two smart drop shots. A few games later, at 4-4, he finally broke when Zverev double-faulted twice.

“The main thing was to just keep holding serve, keep being aggressive,” Fritz said.

In the fourth set, Fritz hung on to his serve six times and forced a tiebreaker. It was there that he was finally able to break Zverev down with his aggression. In the breaker, he hit an ace, two service winners, a backhand winner, a forehand winner, a smash, and a good passing shot after a long run. In the fifth set, he broke Zverev by outlasting him in a series of long rallies. On match point, he closed with a backhand that skidded through the court for his 69th winner of the day.

Afterward, Zverev congratulated Fritz on the 4-6, 6-7 (4), 6-4, 7-6 (3), 6-3 victory, but he chalked most of the result up to his knee.

“I was on one leg today,” Zverev said. “He’s playing great….But also I do know that the match was not high level. It was, like, there wasn’t really long rallies because I couldn't play long rallies. There wasn’t really physicality.”

Told about those comments, Fritz responded, “I thought the match seemed extremely normal until I was up the break in the fifth, then I feel like that’s when I felt like he was limping and moving.”

Fritz is right not to let anything rob him of this moment. Zverev was well enough to get within a game or two of victory, in a match that lasted three and a half hours.

The American’s reward? He’ll take another crack at reaching his first Grand Slam semifinal on Tuesday. Last time he did that at Wimbledon, in 2022, he was facing Rafael Nadal. This time he’ll be facing Lorenzo Musetti.

“This will be my first quarterfinal where I’m the more experienced person in Slam quarterfinals, having played Novak twice and Rafa once,” Fritz said. “Hopefully that will help me a little bit. But I know I’m going to have to play well.”

For now, Fritz’s quarterfinal can wait. After beating Zverev, he was too emotional even to finish the first sentence of his post-match interview:

“It was amazing to do that on Centre Court Wimbledon, two sets down in front of this crowd, it’s just like…”

Fritz didn’t have anything to compare it to. Hopefully, for him, it won’t be the last time he makes it up this mountain.