Taylor Fritz becomes 1st American man to reach Wimbledon semifinals since 2018
John Isner was the last American to reach the semifinals of the grass-court tournament.
Fritz, 27, won 6-3, 6-4, 1-6, 7-6 (4). The American dominated the first two sets as he took 40 of his 47 service points and never faced a break in that span.
However, in the third set, the match flipped as Khachanov won eight of the next nine games. Fritz said he had never seen a match turn so quickly on him.
"I mean he definitely started playing a bit better, but I feel like I gave him a lot of hope with not the best game to start the third set for me. But I've never really had a match change like that so drastically where I felt so in control: serving great, playing great, I didn't feel like my serve was in danger," Fritz said after the match on the court.
"I felt like I was putting a lot of pressure on his serve and then out of nowhere I feel like I started making a ton of mistakes. Before, I felt like I couldn't miss and then, all of the sudden, I'm making a ton of mistakes. He's putting a lot of balls in play, so I really had to fight to get that break back in the fourth and kind of get the match back to neutral."
Fritz fell behind 2-0 in the fourth set, but rallied back to win the set in a tiebreak. The No. 5 ranked player in the world said it feels "great" to get through it.
"I'm feeling great to get through it. I feel like the match was going so well for me two sets. I've never had a match really just flip so quickly. I'm really happy with how I kinda came back in the fourth set and got it done. I think momentum was definitely not going be on my side going into a fifth (set)," Fritz said.
Fritz came into the match with a 1-4 record in major quarterfinals, including going 0-2 at Wimbledon. The 27-year-old was the runner-up at the U.S. Open last year.
"It's an amazing feeling," Fritz said of making his first Wimbledon semifinal.
"Obviously, having played the quarterfinals here twice and having lost in five twice, I don't think I could have taken another one, so I'm happy. I'm really happy I'm going to get to play the semis here."
Khachanov fell to 0-11 in Grand Slam matches against opponents ranked in the top five with the loss.
Fritz will either face two-time defending champion Carlos Alcaraz of Spain or unseeded Cam Norrie of Britain for a berth in the final on Friday.
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