The 22-year drought of American men in the Grand Slam continues. No. 5 seed Taylor Fritz failed to defeat two champions on Friday.
Alcaraz scored the first set thanks to a break from Fritz’s serve in the first game, and got a friendly bounce from the netcode at breakpoints, keeping the serve without any issues remaining in the set. Fritz bounced back in an impressive way in the second set, dominating his service game, putting more pressure on Alcaraz’s serve, eventually cracking the Spaniards in the final game of the set, breaking Alcaraz with Love.
It created optimism that Fritz could hang alongside the world’s second player, but that feeling was short-lived as Alcaraz defeated Fritz twice to win a third set of 6-3, regaining the advantages of the match. Neither player was able to find a break in the fourth set. They went to a serve tiebreak, which seemed to cruise after Alkaraz raised the mini break to 4-1. Fritz had the answer, but he regained those points from Alcaraz’s serve and scored a double set point of 6-4. However, Alcaraz then ripped four straight points to win the match and punched the ticket to the final.
Alcaraz’s full game was on display, even in matches where he didn’t have the absolute best. He had many loose swings, especially in the forehand, but made up for it with a big serve to irritate the Americans with Fritz and his usual series of epic drop shots. He came relentlessly, scoring 31 of 41 net points in matches and showing off a global touch to hold back Fritz, even if the Americans had advantages at the baseline rally.
Fritz was a competitor in the game and had a very incredible match, but there was no margin of error against Alcaraz. Fritz had more winners (44) than Alcaraz, with fewer unforced errors, but struggled to handle Alcaraz’s drop shot onslaught, and was the wrong end of some big breaks in the defending champions. The netcode winner and Alcaraz at the first game’s breakpoint stand out by simply cutting out the baseline of the matchpoint. For talent like Alkaraz, the margins are too thin to appear on the wrong side of these moments.
Alcaraz is waiting for the winners of Novak Jjokovic and Jannik Sinner in the second semi-finals. Alkaraz fully knows what it takes to beat Djokovic in the final two Wimbledon Finals and defeat seven Wimbledon champions on his favorite court. Meanwhile, Sinner has become his main rival, but Alcaraz has won the number one in the world in a recent battle.
