Taylor Fritz recovered from a mid-match lull during which he was treated by a trainer for a foot problem and reached the Wimbledon semifinals for the first time with a 6-3, 6-4, 1-6, 7-6 (4) victory over Karen Khachanov on Tuesday.
He's the first American man to reach that stage of the grass-court Slam since John Isner in 2018.
The No. 5-seeded Fritz, the runner-up at last year's US Open, came in with a 1-4 record in major quarterfinals, 0-2 at Wimbledon. He'll now meet either two-time defending champion Carlos Alcaraz of Spain or unseeded Cam Norrie of Britain for a berth in the final.
Fritz has been rolling since the calendar flipped to the grass-court season, with a 13-1 record on the surface that included a pair of titles at Stuttgart and Eastbourne. That's the most grass wins on the ATP Tour and the most by any American man in a season since the start of 1990, when the ATP Tour was formed.
Fritz powered his way to a big early lead against No. 17 Khachanov, taking 40 of his 47 service points across the initial two sets and never facing a break chance in that span.
But then two-time major semifinalist Khachanov grabbed eight of nine games. It was during that stretch that Fritz took a medical timeout, removing his right shoe and sock so the trainer could retape the foot.
Khachanov broke to begin the fourth set, in a game in which Fritz's top serve was 117 mph, 18 mph slower than his fastest of the match to that point. He looked up at his guest box and tapped his racket against his thighs, perhaps indicating that he was dealing with some fatigue.
From 2-0 down in the fourth, though, Fritz began to regain his strength and touch, and was just two points from victory a total of three times while up 5-4 and 6-5. But
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