Knee injuries plagued Taylor Fritz throughout this season, and they came back to haunt him during his quarterfinal clash against Alexander Zverev at Wimbledon. The American had to take a medical timeout to get his knee checked while trailing in the second set by 2-1. He would win just five more games after this as Zverev racked up a convincing 6-4, 6-4, 6-2 victory in an hour and 59 minutes. But even though Fritz wasn’t fully fit, he still came under scrutiny for his performance.

Fritz wasn’t able to gain a break over Zverev throughout the match. He trailed his opponent for the vast majority of the encounter and was loose on his serve at times despite firing 17 aces. The German won the first set by clinching the lone break he needed and saving all four break points Fritz earned.

The match began to shift away from Fritz after he encountered the knee issue early in the second set. Another single break was enough for Zverev to take a commanding lead in the match. The third set proved pretty one-sided, as Zverev broke Fritz twice and held his own serve quite comfortably to get an easy win.

This marked Zverev’s first victory over Fritz since 2024. The World No. 3 had come out on the losing side in their last seven encounters, but has now finally broken the unwanted streak. The American had led the H2H record by 10-5 before their Wimbledon clash, and this was one reason why he was considered the favorite ahead of the match.

So, it wasn’t surprising that the fans were let down seeing Fritz lose in straight sets against an opponent whom he had defeated on numerous occasions in the past. They wasted no time in expressing their frustration over the World No. 7’s disappointing defeat.

Fans bash Taylor Fritz after Wimbledon exit

Another fan expressed a similar sentiment and said that all the levels of all male American players have dropped. “I officially hate all the American men. You suck and are failures.”

There was also a fan who made a scathing comment about Fritz’s recurrent knee problems. “Diagnosis: he’s s–t.”

Another fan simply asked why Fritz decided to play Wimbledon if his knee hadn’t fully healed. “Why is he playing Tennis with a knee issue?”

Finally, a fan felt that Fritz failed to take care of his knee and needs more time to make a full recovery. “Brother……. there’s one person in ATP that could tell you what to do with knee injury and why 2 months is clearly not enough to recover.”

It remains to be seen whether Fritz will skip the opening few tournaments of the hard-court season to heal his knee once and for all.