On July 4th, the eve of American Independence Day, Taylor Fritz proved his mettle in London while keeping his Wimbledon dream alive this week. The World No.5 is turning into an unstoppable force at the moment. After earning victories across cliffhanger battles in the first and second rounds, the 27-year-old brushed aside Spain’s Alejandro Davidovich Fokina to secure a fourth-round spot at the grass major. “There are lots of parts of my game that work well on the grass,” he reflected. That’s what two former ATP icons believe as well. Now, they have even drawn a Carlos Alcaraz/Jannik Sinner parallel while showering praises on Fritz. Reason?

Is there something Fritz can’t do? Perhaps not, especially when it comes to his electric form at the All England Club this season. The 2024 US Open finalist looks like a totally different player in terms of stroke-making and game awareness, which he displayed during the maiden encounter against Giovanni Mpetshi Perricard’s thunderous serves. The latter even hit a 153 mph missile at him, which the American handled with ease and earned a crucial point, too, before besting the Frenchman in a hard-fought five-setter.

Next up, he defied a ‘bloody’ injury against Canada’s Gabriel Diallo to win a second-straight five-set encounter. On Friday, he had to play one set less, but it wasn’t without effort. Despite cruising through the first two sets against Fokina, he fumbled slightly in the third. But guess what? The form in which he is, Fritz knows how to make way for himself on the grass. He didn’t take much time before besting the Spaniard with a score line of 6-4, 6-3, 6-7, 6-1. Fritz’s tremendous run at the Wimbledon prompted former pros, Sam Querrey and Steve Johnson to laud him.

During an episode of the Nothing Major podcast, Querrey began saying, “Fritzy beats Davidovich Fokina, I mean we saw that coming.” To this, Johnson responded by drawing a crucial comparison with the likes of Alcaraz and Sinner. “I mean, you can argue Jannik and Carlos this way, but is there somebody better at wiping away a bad 10 minutes and regrouping than Taylor Fritz right now?”

Raving on his performance against Fokina, Johnson continued, “He’s up two sets, serving for the match, cruising, gets broken, loses the third. A lot of guys would struggle, he just resets on the changeover and goes 6-1, see you later.” Even Querrey couldn’t help but agree. “Good point. Outside of Carlos, Jannik like you said, he’s the next best at brushing off whatever’s going on and just refocusing.”

Concluding his remarks, Johnson then said, “Even against Mpetshi Perricard, like ace, ace, bad set, bad set. ‘Oh let’s just flush it, move on to the next one’, ‘Oh, down 5-2 in the break, move on to the next one’. Like he’s really impressive in that regard as a tennis player.”

And now, even Fritz’s current compatriot, Ben Shelton, is hailing him. So what’s the one quality of Fritz that has impressed Shelton?

Ben Shelton reveals what makes Taylor Fritz a big threat at the Wimbledon

For the uninitiated, Ben Shelton is witnessing a great campaign himself at the All England Club. In his three matches, he hasn’t lost a single set. On Saturday, he beat Hungary’s Márton Fucsovics in the third round with a score line of 6-3, 7-6(4), 6-2.

During the post-match press conference, he was posed with an interesting question. Who, according to him, has got the sharpest tennis minds on tour? Shelton’s response was immediate. “Tough question,” he initially reacted while saying, “There’s a lot. Everyone is sharp in their own way.”

He then brought up Taylor Fritz‘s name and added, “Like, you know, Taylor Fritz has a great tennis mind, and he knows what he has to do to win matches and he’s very objective, and he knows why he lost matches as soon as he walks off the court. And you can see him talking through it during the match with his box.”

Weighing in on his response, Shelton explained, “He’s not getting coached as much during the match. He’s just talking through and making adjustments and telling them what’s going on. I think he has a great tennis mind.” It will be intriguing to see if Fritz’s dominating form will help him clinch the Gentlemen’s trophy next week. Since 2000, after Pete Sampras, no American man has won the Wimbledon title.

Do you think Fritz can finally end the 25-year-long wait? Let us know in the comments below. And for live, minute-by-minute coverage of the Championships, head on to our Live Blog.