American Taylor Fritz reached his first career grand slam semifinal at the US Open on Tuesday, defeating fourth seed Alexander Zverev 7-6(2), 3-6, 6-4, 7-6(3) in a hard-fought battle.
Fritz had previously been 0-4 in major quarterfinals, but finally got over the hump against a tough opponent to give the US its second semifinalist of the day.
“I feel amazing, I’ve had a lot of looks in quarterfinals over the past couple of years, today just felt different,” he said on court post-match. “I really felt like it was my time to take it a step further and it was only fitting to do it at the Open in front of this crowd.”
It is the third year in a row that an American man has reached their maiden grand slam semifinal at the US Open. Frances Tiafoe accomplished the feat in 2022, while Ben Shelton made a surprise run last year.
Hours after Fritz’s win, Tiafoe advanced to the US Open semifinals after world No. 9 Grigor Dimitrov of Bulgaria retired with an injury in the fourth set of their quarterfinal. Tiafoe had a 6-3, 6-7(5), 6-3, 4-1 lead against Dimitrov.
Tiafoe and Fritz will play each other Friday, guaranteeing an American will reach Sunday’s final.
No American man has won a grand slam singles title since Andy Roddick at the US Open in 2003. Roddick is also the last American man to reach a major singles final, at Wimbledon in 2009.
The two heavy hitters Fritz and Zverev entered the match with the German leading the head-to-head series 5-4. Fritz boasted the most recent win ahead of Tuesday, knocking the German out of Wimbledon in the round of 16 in a grueling five-set comeback earlier this year.
After the match, Zverev was frustrated but complimented his opponent.
“(Fritz) absolutely deserved to win today. I’m not taking anything away from him. He played quite a good match. I did nothing to deserve to win.”
Both players are known for their big serves and made use of this powerful weapon in the first set. Zverev was remarkably accurate in the opener, with 37 of his 43 serves landing in, while Fritz won an incredible 86% percent of his first serve points.
The American had the chance to wrap things up and came within a point of taking the first set, but Zverev dug himself out of a 0-40 hole to send things into a tie-break.
It was Fritz that came out on top on the breaker though to delight the crowd inside Arthur Ashe Stadium.
The match was characterized by short points featuring overwhelming serves interspersed between long, arduous rallies from the baseline. At one point in the second set, Zverev produced a spectacular ‘banana’ shot that curved around the net post to put an end to a 24-shot rally.
Zverev finally clinched the first break of the match in the eighth game of the second set, before serving out to level the match up. Fritz’s winner count fell below his amount of unforced errors as he struggled to keep pace.
Despite the setback, Fritz piled on the pressure at the start of the third set and finally earned his first break of the match in the second game after back-to-back errors from his opponent. He sought to press the advantage but Zverev broke back three games later to bring the match back on serve and quell some of the intensity that Fritz had been playing with.
The set seemed destined for another tie-break, but Zverev’s focus dropped at the wrong time and a trio of errors on serve in the 10th game gave Fritz three set points. The German saved all three before an ace saved a fourth, but Fritz converted at the fifth time of asking to take the lead.
The level from both players did not drop even as the match entered its fourth hour.
Serves regularly exceeded the 125mph mark as the pair attempted to wear each other down.
In the end, another tie-break was required to separate the two. Fritz earned the mini-break on the first point before winning another lengthy rally in style to pad his advantage. Zverev stayed in it, but struck a forehand wide on match point to send Fritz into the last four at a major for the first time in his career.
