It Sure As Hell Wasn't Easy To Get Here, But Taylor Fritz Is Into His First Ever Wimbledon Semifinal, Providing Hope For American Men's Tennis Once Again

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A week ago Taylor Fritz found himself down two sets to none against 6'8" 150 mph serving monster Giovanni Mpetshi Perricard in the first round of Wimbledon. Coming back from the brink like that against anyone is a steep task, but a guy who is gonna force you to countless tiebreaks? Not a situation you wanna find yourself in. To make matters worse, in the fourth set Fritz trailed the tiebreak 5-1, down two mini breaks to Perricard. Again, a really, really bad spot to be in. Honestly, a borderline death sentence versus a big server like that. He nails two serves and you're going home packing without a say in the matter. He rips a forehand or two on a second serve If the Vegas odds had Perricard as a -3,000 live favorite I wouldn't have been surprised. Well, Taylor dug deep and somehow found a way to force the match to a deciding fifth set. 

The match was then pushed to the next day because of Wimbledon's awful curfew rule. Don't get me started with that bullshit. Don't live there if you don't wanna deal with the noise for two weeks! Anyways, all that momentum he had was zapped away with Perricard gifted a night's rest to reset. Taylor showed up the next day locked in and took care of business to stay alive and advance. 

In his next match the American found himself against a rising star in the sport in Canada's Gabriel Diallo. This dude is getting better every week and creating all sorts of problems on the tour. That battle went five sets as well, with Fritz once again prevailing. So two matches in he had totaled just under seven hours on court. Certainly not something that indicates you have a deep run in you. 

Well, here we are as Fritz just dispatched Karen Khachanov in four sets to advance to his first ever Wimbledon semifinals. Was it easy to get here? Fuck no, but this son of a bitch doesn't quit. Taylor Fritz is in the final four of Wimbledon and man is it deserved. Love to see that emotion out of him. 

Everyone wants to talk about Ben Shelton, and trust me the hype is real and exciting, but Fritz has been sneaky been banging on the door of a slam title for a few years now. Since the start of 2023 this is the fifth time he's reached the quarters in a slam. It's his second semifinal in as many years. For the first six years of his career on the ATP tour Fritz never amassed anything. He was an afterthought with nothing but a big serve and minimal movement. Eventually something clicked and he turned it all around. 

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His turnaround can be traced back to when he started dating his girlfriend Morgan Riddle. 

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Teamwork makes the dream work, right? 

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Right now that dream of bringing home a grand slam for America is alive and well. He'll get the winner of Alcaraz/Norrie next for a spot in the Wimbledon final. While yes it's Alcaraz on grass, at a slam he's trying to three peat at, he hasn't looked his best in this tournament. He only has to win two more matches. Why not him? Two matches where his serve is a 10/10 and you could see his name on that trophy. Crazy. 

P.S. Ben Shelton gets Jannik Sinner tomorrow for his spot in the semis. Not gonna be easy in the slightest. It was almost set up great for Ben with Dimitrov up two sets to none on Sinner yesterday, but in the third he tore his pec. It seemed like he was either getting Dimitrov or a tired Sinner and instead he gets a rested Sinner. We'll see what's going with his elbow though, which he said he's getting an MRI on today. Go Ben Go!