The 22-year drought for American men in the grand slams will continue. No. 5 seed Taylor Fritz could not topple the defending two-time champion on Friday, as No. 2 seed Carlos Alcaraz took down the top man from the United States in four sets, 6-4, 5-7, 6-3, 7-6(6), to advance to his third straight Wimbledon final.
Alcaraz won the first set thanks to a break of Fritz’s serve in the first game, getting a friendly bounce off the net cord on break point, and then held serve without any issue the rest of the set. Fritz bounced back in impressive fashion in the second set, dominating his service games and applying more pressure to Alcaraz’s serve, eventually getting the Spaniard to crack in the final game of the set, breaking Alcaraz at love to even the match.
That created some optimism that Fritz could hang with the world’s No. 2 player, but that feeling was short lived as Alcaraz broke Fritz twice to take the third set 6-3 and reclaim the advantage in the match. Neither player could find a break in the fourth set, as they went to a tiebreak on serve and it looked like Alcaraz would cruise after getting a mini-break to go up 4-1. Fritz had an answer, however, picking those points back off of the Alcaraz serve and got to double set point up 6-4. But then Alcaraz ripped off four straight points to win the match and punch his ticket to the final.
Alcaraz’s full game was on display, even in a match where he didn’t have his absolute best. He had a number of loose swings, particularly with the forehand, but made up for it with big serves to match Fritz and his usual array of spectacular drop shots that frustrated the American. He was relentless coming in, winning 31-of-41 net points in the match, and showed off his all-world touch to keep Fritz off balance even as the American had the advantage in baseline rallies.
Fritz was a game competitor, playing a pretty tremendous match, but there just isn’t any margin for error against Alcaraz. Fritz had more winners (44) and fewer unforced errors (24) than Alcaraz, but struggled to handle the Alcaraz drop shot onslaught and was one the wrong end of a few great breaks for the defending champ. The net cord winner on break point in the first game and Alcaraz just clipping the baseline on match point stand out, and against a talent like Alcaraz, the margins are too thin to come up on the wrong side of those kinds of moments.
Alcaraz will now await the winner of Novak Djokovic and Jannik Sinner in the second semifinal. Alcaraz has beaten Djokovic in the last two Wimbledon finals, knowing fully what it takes to beat the 7-time Wimbledon champ on his favorite court. Sinner, meanwhile, has become his chief rival, but Alcaraz has gotten the better of the world No. 1 in their recent battles, most recently their instant classic at Roland-Garros to win the French Open title last month.
