Third Time’s the Charm: Taylor Fritz Breaks Through
at Wimbledon to Reach First Semifinal

In the sun-soaked cathedral of No. 1 Court, Taylor Fritz finally broke through, inching closer to becoming the first American man in 25 years to win tennis’ oldest and most prestigious tournament.

Rancho Santa Fe’s Fritz reached uncharted territory at Wimbledon, earning his first semifinal berth at a Grand Slam outside hard courts. With a gutsy 6-3, 6-4, 1-6, 7-6(4) win over 2020 Tokyo Olympics silver medalist Karen Khachanov, the 27-year-old became the first American man in the Wimbledon final four since John Isner in 2018, and just the third in the last 15 years.

“It’s an amazing feeling,” Fritz said. “Having played the quarterfinals here twice and lost in five twice, I don’t think I could’ve taken another one. I’m really happy.”

A Southern California native shaped by the USTA SoCal junior system, Fritz’s powerful serve and flat groundstrokes have always suited grass. He arrived at The Championships riding two grass-court titles this season at Stuttgart and Eastbourne, and now boasts a 13-1 record on grass in 2025, the most wins by an American man in a single season since the ATP Tour began in 1990.

A Breakthrough Built in SoCal

For those who’ve followed Taylor Fritz’s rise, from his early days in the USTA Southern California junior circuit to hoisting 10 ATP Tour trophies, this moment at Wimbledon feels like destiny fulfilled.

Emerging from one of the nation’s toughest developmental pipelines, he won the CIF San Diego Section singles title as a freshman at Torrey Pines High School and debuted internationally at 15. His first ITF event came in 2013 at a low-level Grade-4 tournament in Clairemont, just miles from where he grew up. That same year, he made his debut at the Junior US Open, and never looked back.

By 2014, Fritz reached the Junior Wimbledon semifinals, captured his first Grade A title at the Osaka Mayor’s Cup, and by 2015, he topped the junior world rankings. He made quarterfinals at all four junior Grand Slams, won the 2015 US Open boys’ title over long-time rival Tommy Paul, and was named ITF Junior World Champion, the first American to do so since Donald Young in 2005 and Andy Roddick in 2000.

Nearly a decade later, Fritz is the tour’s dominant grass-court player. His style, thunderous serve, flat groundstrokes, battle-hardened mindset, has all come together at Wimbledon 2025.

How He Got Here: A Run Through SW19

A 2024 US Open finalist, Taylor Fritz’s Wimbledon journey this year has been anything but easy. It began with a thunderclap, a two-day, five-set epic against 6’8″ Frenchman Giovanni Mpetshi Perricard, one of the game’s most fearsome young servers. The towering 21-year-old blasted a jaw-dropping 153 mph missile, the fastest serve ever recorded at Wimbledon. Fritz not only absorbed it, he returned it cleanly and won the point, setting the tone for a battle defined by resilience. Down two sets to love and staring at an early exit, the No. 5 seed clawed his way back with calm, precision, and unrelenting grit. When play was suspended for curfew, Fritz returned the next day with purpose, and closed the door. In a match that showcased both power and poise, he triumphed 6-7(8), 6-7(10), 6-4, 7-6(6), 6-4, delivering a statement win that reminded everyone why he’s one of the top five players in the world.

Fritz followed his grueling first-round win with another five-set thriller that tested every ounce of his endurance. In the second round, he faced 6’8″ Canadian Gabriel Diallo, one of the grass season’s breakout stars. Fresh off his maiden ATP title at the Libéma Open in the Netherlands, Diallo had become the seventh first-time champion on tour in 2025.

Like Fritz, he arrived at Wimbledon riding momentum. Both had tallied nine grass-court wins this season and entered as recent title winners. Their clash pitted two of the year’s most in-form players, both standing well over 6 feet tall, both armed with massive serves and heavy groundstrokes.

After dropping the opening set and weathering relentless serve-and-volley pressure, Fritz relied on his experience and composure to turn the tide. Facing a towering serving giant was nothing new, after enduring 37 aces from Mpetshi Perricard, Fritz knew patience was key. He bided his time, waiting for the moment to strike, and that strategy paid off once again. With confident baseline play and precise shot-making, he captured the next two sets, only to see Diallo mount a fierce comeback in the fourth.

Then came the decider, the kind of pressure-cooker fifth set that separates contenders from champions.

Diallo had only taken matches to five sets twice before in his career, while Fritz had been battle-tested time and again. That experience showed. With the match hanging in the balance, Fritz broke serve to take a crucial 4-2 lead, and from there, he never looked back. In another grueling marathon, he powered through to a 3-6, 6-3, 7-6(0), 4-6, 6-3 victory, reaffirming why he stands among the game’s elite.

“That’s an incredibly hard match,” he said. “The fourth set—I don’t think there’s much that I did wrong at all… I’m happy to get through that.”

In the third round, Fritz found more rhythm, defeating Spain’s Alejandro Davidovich Fokina in four sets, 6-4, 6-3, 6-7(5), 6-1, to punch his ticket into the fourth round despite dealing with a bloody elbow that required multiple medical stoppages.

“It’s getting pretty annoying having to stop all the time,” Fritz said after requiring two medical stoppages to deal with a bloody elbow during the match. “I feel bad for my opponent when I keep having to stop all the time, but you can only really do it on grass. I’m just really determined to get some of these balls, and eventually I’m going to win one of these points.”

The three-hour, 12-minute victory set the stage for a match against Australian Jordan Thompson, with a spot in the quarterfinals on the line, a stage Fritz had reached twice in his last three Wimbledon appearances. Though the match itself was brief, its impact was profound. Thompson retired due to injury just 41 minutes in, trailing 6-1, 3-0, handing Fritz a hard-earned advance to his third Wimbledon quarterfinal in four years. But this time, Fritz wasn’t just advancing, he was poised to make history.

“It’s obviously not the way that I want to go through,” Fritz said. “It’s just sad. … Respect to him for coming out. His body’s not right.”

Third Time’s the Charm

Fritz’s previous two quarterfinals at Wimbledon ended in heartbreak: a five-set loss to Rafael Nadal in 2022, who withdrew from the tournament the next day, and another five-set defeat to Lorenzo Musetti two years later.

Wimbledon has taught Fritz patience. On Tuesday, he flipped the script.

Heading into the quarterfinals, Khachanov held a 2-0 edge over Fritz in their ATP head-to-head, but both of those wins came nearly six years ago, back in 2019. This time, Fritz rewrote the narrative. He came out in complete command, looking nearly untouchable, winning 40 of 47 service points and never facing a break through the first two sets. His return game, sharpened by two grueling five-set battles earlier in the tournament, was locked in. By the time he stepped on court against the No. 17 seed, his timing was razor-sharp, and almost nothing got past him.

Then momentum shifted abruptly. A flurry of unforced errors and a foot issue forced a medical timeout for retapping, disrupting his rhythm and opening the door for Khachanov.

From 0-2 down in the fourth, with his serve speed dipping nearly 20 mph, Fritz dug deep. At crucial moments, he subtly adjusted his positioning, standing deeper on return to neutralize Khachanov’s power serve, and it turned the tide. After losing rhythm and dropping the third set, Fritz took a moment, regrouped mentally, and reset his tactics, returning the match to his control. Though Khachanov pushed the match to a tense tiebreak, Fritz stayed calm, locking in the final three points from 4-all to clinch the win.

“I’ve never really had the match change like that so drastically where I felt so in control, playing great, serving great. I didn’t feel like my serve was in danger, I felt like I was putting a lot of pressure on his serve,” Fritz said. “I felt like I couldn’t miss and then, out of nowhere, I just started making a ton of mistakes. So I really just had to fight to get that break back in the fourth and kind of just get the match back to neutral.”

Fritz finished the match with 16 aces and a top serve speed of 138 mph. Most importantly, he showed the kind of resilience that defines champions, fighting through injury, pressure, and nerves to rewrite his Wimbledon story.

“I’m feeling great to get through it,” he said. “I feel like the match was going so well for me for two sets. I’ve never had a match just flip so quickly. So I’m really happy with how I came back in the fourth set and got it done. Momentum was definitely not going to be on my side going into a fifth.”

The Face of a New American Era

Fritz’s rise to the semifinals is more than a personal milestone, it marks a pivotal moment for American men’s tennis. He now joins Frances Tiafoe and Ben Shelton as the only active U.S. men with multiple Grand Slam semifinal appearances. Uniquely, Fritz is the only one to reach that stage on a non-hardcourt surface, breaking through where Americans have traditionally struggled in recent decades.

Tiafoe made his semifinal runs at the 2022 and 2024 US Open, falling to Fritz last year, when the Southern Californian reached his first Grand Slam final in New York. Shelton reached the semifinals at the 2023 US Open and the 2025 Australian Open. 

Fritz’s Wimbledon surge also extends a promising trend: at least one American man has reached the quarterfinals at five consecutive Majors, the longest such streak since 2004.

Shelton will look to join Fritz in the final four on Wednesday, if he can get past world No. 1 Jannik Sinner. The last time two American men reached the Wimbledon semifinals was in 2000, when legends Pete Sampras, of Palos Verdes, and Andre Agassi both made the final four.

Beyond the broader U.S. tennis landscape, Fritz stands as a shining symbol of the tennis boom unfolding in Southern California. Fueled by USTA SoCal’s dedicated investment in junior development, high-performance training, and expanded competitive pathways, including the SoCal Pro Series, which has launched careers and provided crucial pro-level experience, Fritz embodies what the region can produce.

He’s not just part of this resurgence; he’s leading it, carrying forward a legacy deeply rooted in SoCal tennis culture. Now, he’s just one match away from making history with a Wimbledon final appearance.

Next Stop: History

Fritz is set for the ultimate test at Wimbledon: a semifinal clash against two-time defending champion and world No. 2 Carlos Alcaraz. The 21-year-old Spaniard, already a five-time Grand Slam champion, booked his spot by defeating British favorite Cameron Norrie and is riding a wave of momentum of 19 straight wins at Wimbledon, 23 consecutive victories overall. His only loss since April 20 came in the Barcelona Open final to Holger Rune. Tuesday’s win also marked his 76th Grand Slam match victory in just 88 appearances, an astonishing stat for a player still early in his career.

For Fritz, the stakes couldn’t be higher. A win would make him the first American man to reach the Wimbledon final since Andy Roddick in 2009. While Fritz’s reliable serve has been a rock throughout the tournament, he may need to break from his typically methodical return game and take more calculated risks to disrupt Alcaraz’s rhythm and apply pressure.

The Spaniard leads their ATP head-to-head 2-0, but both of those meetings came on hard courts, most recently at last year’s Laver Cup and the 2023 Miami Open. This will be their first encounter on grass, where both have shown they can thrive.

“He’s playing great. The grass has been really successful for me so far… I’m going to be ready for that battle,” Alcaraz said of Fritz in his on-court interview Tuesday.

No player has claimed their first Grand Slam title at Wimbledon since Roger Federer did it in 2003. Fritz now stands just two wins away from rewriting that history.

No matter how this next chapter unfolds, the Rancho Santa Fe native has already carved out a place for himself on tennis’ biggest stage.