In the end, it was supposed to be Taylor Fritz’s match, wasn’t it? Such was the determination shown by the American star that he went on to shrug off injury concerns and defeat Karen Khachanov to make it to the Wimbledon semifinals. In the middle of the match, Fritz suffered from foot blisters, but that didn’t deter him from completing a victory in four sets. In the process, Fritz also went on to break a couple of records and set high standards for himself.

This will be Fritz’s maiden entry into the Wimbledon semifinals. Before today, he had lost both his previous quarterfinal encounters at the grass-court Grand Slam event, one in 2022 against Rafael Nadal and the other last year against Lorenzo Musetti. However, on both these occasions, Fritz gave a good account of himself before losing in close five-set encounters. Thus, Fritz has achieved his best run at Wimbledon with a win over Khachanov and would like to go right to the very end of the tournament. However, this isn’t all he has to celebrate as Fritz has made further history at Wimbledon.

This year, Fritz is 13-1 on the grass courts. He entered the Wimbledon Championships in some fine form, making it to the finals of the Boss Open and winning the title at the Eastbourne Open. Amid this winning streak, Fritz now has the most wins by an American man on grass in a single season since the ATP Tour began 35 years ago. Fritz still has a couple of matches left and could add to that tally of 13 if he continues the form he is in at the moment.

With his quarterfinals win, Fritz has now risen to the fourth spot in the live ATP rankings, getting ahead of Jack Draper. He has a chance to close down the gap with Alexander Zverev, who lost in the first round here. Meanwhile, it was the third time lucky for Fritz after losing two quarterfinals here in the last three years. After the match, Fritz opened up about reaching the semifinals here for the first time in his career.

Taylor Fritz makes a candid revelation after defeating Karen Khachanov

Fritz said, “It’s an amazing feeling. Having played the quarter-finals here twice and lost in five twice, I don’t think I could have taken another one. I’m really happy I’m going to get to play the semis here. I’m feeling great to get through it. The match was going so well for me for two sets, I’ve never really had a match just flip so quickly, so I’m really happy how I came back in the fourth set and got it done. I think momentum was not going to be on my side in the fifth.”

Having never won a Grand Slam title before, Fritz has a golden opportunity to lift the trophy here at Wimbledon. However, he could face Carlos Alcaraz next, who is currently playing against Cameron Norrie. Check out EssentiallySports’ minute by minute update of the Championships on our Live Blog.