The Americans are having a good run at Wimbledon 2025 as both Taylor Fritz and Ben Shelton reached the quarterfinals. Whether either had a decent chance of winning the grass-court major is arguable, as Carlos Alcaraz was always going to be the heavy favorite.
But this year's Wimbledon has been a series of upsets, so discounting Fritz and Shelton completely beginning on Day 9 would have been a mistake. This is especially true as Shelton will play Jannik Sinner on Wednesday, and Sinner likely only reached the round due to an injury retirement by Grigor Dimitrov in the fourth round.
At the time, the Bulgarian was leading the Italian 6-3 7-5, and the third set was tied at 2 when Dimitrov appeared to suffer a pec injury.
Taylor Fritz into first semifinals at Wimbledon by defeating Karen Khachanov
Fritz was faced with playing Karen Khachanov in his quarterfinal match and got off to a fast start with an early break. He was hitting the ball solidly and rarely losing a point on serve. But as tennis fans have seen throughout the Wimbledon fortnight, winning the first set, which Fritz did 6-3, could mean little if he dropped in form.
The second set featured sound serving by both players, with Fritz again being barely challenged on his service games. At 4-all, the American got a break of the Russian and then held serve. He won the set 6-4 and had a two-set-to-love lead. It seemed insurmountable as well as Fritz was playing.
It wasn't going to be so easy for the American, however. After serving wonderfully through two sets, he had a loose game in his first service game of set three and Khachanov got the break and then held again to lead 3-0. The break of Fritz was more on him than the Russian, as the American had several unforced errors. The momentum changed nonetheless.
After Khachanov finished off the third set 6-1, Fritz called for the medic to look at his foot. The American had struggled with blisters during the tournament, and the hope was that it was the only issue, but the drastic change of the course of the match was still shocking.
The fourth set began no easier for Fritz as he was broken in the first game, but was able to get the break back, and then things settled down for a bit with each player holding. Leading 5-4 with Khachanov serving, Fritz did get a 0-30 lead, but the Russian reeled off four straight points to even the set at 5-all. Each player held easily in the next service games, and the set went to a tie-break.
Fritz got an early mini-break and kept serving exceedingly well (winning 16 straight points on his serve at one point from the fourth set into the tie-break) and jumped out to a 4-1 lead in the tie-break. However, Khachanov was able to finally get a point off a Fritz serve to get the tie-break back on serve.
Serving at 5-4, Khachanov mishit a forehand that sailed long, giving Fritz a 6-4 lead, and then the American sealed the victory with an overhead smash to take the final set 7-6(7-4).
With the victory, he reached the Wimbledon semifinals for the first time. He will next play the winner of the Cameron Norrie and Carlos Alcaraz match.