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Tennis: Wimbledon Championships Jun 30, 2025 Wimbledon, United Kingdom Taylor Fritz USA reacts after missing a shot against Giovanni Mpetshi Perricard FRAnot pictured on day one of The Championships, Wimbledon 2025 at All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club. Wimbledon All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club United Kingdom, EDITORIAL USE ONLY PUBLICATIONxINxGERxSUIxAUTxONLY Copyright: xGeoffxBurkex 20250630_gkb_sb4_152

via Imago
Tennis: Wimbledon Championships Jun 30, 2025 Wimbledon, United Kingdom Taylor Fritz USA reacts after missing a shot against Giovanni Mpetshi Perricard FRAnot pictured on day one of The Championships, Wimbledon 2025 at All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club. Wimbledon All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club United Kingdom, EDITORIAL USE ONLY PUBLICATIONxINxGERxSUIxAUTxONLY Copyright: xGeoffxBurkex 20250630_gkb_sb4_152
Back in the 2023 Monte Carlo Masters, Taylor Fritz was set to face Andrey Rublev in a semi-final match-up. Then, the American won the opening set 7-5 to frustrate Rublev to the point that his bathroom break turned into a chaotic, angry outburst on himself. He threw water bottles and yelled at himself as if he had already lost the game. As a result, Rublev took the second set 6-1 to seal the match with a 6-3 game decider. History has wicked ways to repeat itself. For Taylor Fritz, thankfully, it almost didn’t happen today.
In the breezy Toronto court, Fritz came out firing three aces to win the first set 6-3. However, the Russian returned in the second set. But Fritz stopped him on the way to earn the match’s first eight points with two aces and a serve to tie the score to 4-4. To stay alive in the third game, Rublev went up 6-5. Just then, Taylor Fritz brought in his experience of winning 18 of his last 21 matches. He forced an end to the second-set tiebreaker with an ace to win 7-6 in the one-hour, 23-minute showdown.
The run wasn’t easy for Fritz. The two have faced each other ten times, with the American now standing at 6-4 over Rublev. And before he could enter the first ATP Masters 1000 semifinals against another American, Ben Shelton, since 2010, he had an honest take on his performance.
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Speaking after the match, Taylor Fritz pulled no punches in assessing the wild shift in momentum late in the second set. Reflecting on that pivotal stretch, he said, “That whole game was so shaky for me. It’s weird because he was holding easy, I was holding easy. It felt so like calm and chill and all of a sudden I’m serving to be in the semis, the pressure of the game came out of nowhere.”
“There’s no way to sugarcoat it, it was a tight game. My brain kind of turned off. The only thing you can do is come back and win the set. I would be a lot more upset about what happened in the game if I lose the match. Winning makes it feel not as bad.”
It was a rare moment of vulnerability from a player often defined by calm under fire, but one that also showcased his growing mental steel. And mentally strong he was. After fending off all 10 break points in previous rounds against Gabriel Diallo and Jiri Lehecka, Fritz continued to light up the stats sheet with a blazing service performance.
He hammered 9 aces in a 31-minute first set and finished with 20 total, tying his personal best for a three-set match on Tuesday. He landed 79 percent of his first serves and 64 percent of second serves, showcasing his command in a match that was short on fireworks but long on discipline. Rublev, for his part, was no slouch, holding strong except for a lapse in the second game and a crack in his final service game.
With the win, Fritz joins elite company as only the third man this season to notch 20 hard-court wins. His next battle will be against countryman Ben Shelton in the semis. As the Canadian Open surges on, the American train keeps rolling.
But up ahead looms Cincinnati, where the draw tightens, the heat rises, and chaos could reign supreme. For Taylor Fritz, the road gets steeper, but the stakes have never been higher.
What’s your perspective on:
Is Taylor Fritz the next American tennis star, or does he still have more to prove?
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Taylor Fritz draws a tough Cincinnati path with threats
Rolling in as the fourth seed at Cincinnati, Fritz finds himself staring at what seems like a golden path, at least until the semifinals. With a first-round bye, he opens against either Borna Coric or the gritty Aussie, Christopher O’Connell. But any illusion of ease quickly fades. The next round might pit him against Lorenzo Sonego or Zizou Bergs, both known for turning matches into nerve-wracking, grindhouse slugfests.
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If he survives the early storm, things only get fiercer. Flavio Cobolli could be lying in wait, or the unorthodox Spaniard Alejandro Davidovich Fokina, who drags rivals into deep waters with his relentless pace and court IQ. No matter who shows up, it’s a battle of mental armor.
Then comes the quarterfinal crucible. Taylor might also face Francis Tiafoe, someone he knows all too well from their US Open semi-final clash that still echoes. But Holger Rune might be the one staring across the net, volatile, fearless, and always bringing thunder.
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Should Fritz fight his way through, the semifinals won’t offer relief. Last year’s winner and world top seed, Jannik Sinner, might be waiting. Or, it could be another Italian artist, Lorenzo Musetti. And if Fritz reaches the final frontier, the showdown could be seismic, against either Alexander Zverev or second seed Carlos Alcaraz, against whom Taylor already faced a heavy loss at the Wimbledon semi-final this year in straight sets.
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With a Canadian Open semi now locked in and Cincinnati promising chaos, the question is simple: can Fritz carry the weight and lead the American charge into the US Open spotlight?
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Is Taylor Fritz the next American tennis star, or does he still have more to prove?