American Taylor Fritz, ranked 12th in the world, qualified for the semi-finals of the US Open, the fourth and final Grand Slam tournament of the tennis season, on Tuesday. Fritz will play in his first Grand Slam semi-final after beating German Alexander Zverev (ATP 4) in four sets, 7-6 (7/2), 3-6, 6-4, 7-6 (7/3).
Aged 26, Fritz had already played four quarter-finals in Majors without going further (Wimbledon 2022, US Open 2023, Australian Open and Wimbledon 2024). He will face another American, Frances Tiafoe (ATP 20) or the Bulgarian Grigor Dimitrov (ATP 9) on Friday to try to reach the final.
At Flushing Meadows, Zverev did not have a single break point in the first set, saving four in favor of his opponent, including three consecutive set points at 5-6. He finally forced Fritz to play a tie-break, which he won.
In the second set, the German got his first break point of the match at 4-3 and converted it to lead 5-3 and serve for the set. Fritz immediately took the lead to lead 3-0 in the third set, but Zverev came back.
As in the first set, Fritz had three set points at 5-4 on Zverev’s serve and as in the first set, the German equalized. However, he lost the set a few points later on Fritz’s fifth set point.
In the fourth set, both players held on to their serve as best they could until the tie-break. Twice, at 5-4 and 6-5, Zverev served to stay in the match and twice he equalized. In the tie-break, Fritz quickly pulled away.