NEW YORK : The stars and stripes prevailed at the U.S. Open on Tuesday as Americans Taylor Fritz and Emma Navarro advanced to their first ever Grand Slam semi-finals under sunny skies on the Arthur Ashe Stadium.Fritz, the 12th seed, denied world number four Alexander Zverev another shot at a first major with a 7-6(2) 3-6 6-4 7-6(3) triumph just two months after dispatching the big German in the fourth round at Wimbledon."I've had a lot of looks at quarter-finals over the past couple of years and today just felt different.
I really felt like it was my time to take it a step further," Fritz said."It's only fitting I'm doing it here on this court at the Open in front of this crowd," he said over the roaring home fans.Fritz claimed a tight first set in a tiebreak after the two towering players wowed fans with a mixture of powerful baseline blasts and drop shots and winners at the net.Zverev bounced back to level the match in the second, energised by one of the shots of the tournament, a curling return from out wide that sailed over the net post and landed on both lines.But the world number 12 seized back momentum in the third set and closed out the match in a fourth-set tiebreak.In the day session's opening match, 13th seed Navarro continued her meteoric rise to the top tier of tennis with a 6-2 7-5 win over Spain's Paula Badosa in a battle of New York-born baseliners.One of two American women remaining in the tournament, Navarro snatched an early break to go 3-0 up in the first set, then turned aside two break points to take it in convincing fashion.Navarro, who beat defending champion Coco Gauff in the previous round, stunned a suddenly error-prone Badosa by winning 24 of the last 28 points of the match to wrap up victory