American Taylor Fritz advances to his first Grand Slam quarter-final with a straight sets win against Jason Kubler.
His 6-3 6-1 6-4 win over qualifier Jason Kubler put him into the quarter-finals at Wimbledon and saw him match the grand slam feat of his mother who, as Kathy May, reached three slam quarter-finals in the late 1970s.
Taylor Fritz is in the form of his life 👏
The American advances to his first Grand Slam quarter-final with a straight sets win against Jason Kubler#Wimbledon | @Taylor_Fritz97 pic.twitter.com/8keOczkO5E
— Wimbledon (@Wimbledon) July 4, 2022
It was Fritz’s eighth straight win on grass and carries him to a showdown with two-time champion Rafael Nadal.
“My first grand slam quarter-final, that’s really a big deal,” the 24-year-old Fritz said after the match. “Part of the final eight and… I’m glad I could get the win on the Fourth of July, being American.”
“I felt like I was serving well. It could have gone a lot differently if those first two games were a little different,” Fritz said.
“Second set I played really well and then third set I feel like he slowed it down a little bit and backed up a bit in the court, making it a little bit tougher for me to put the ball away.
“We started having some really long rallies and got really tight. Just really happy to get through in the end.”
After his first Masters 1000 title in Indian Wells over Rafael Nadal earlier this season and a second grass court trophy at Eastbourne, Fritz is tracking well.
Hype has followed him since 2016 when, as an 18-year-old in Memphis, he became the youngest American man since Michael Chang in 1988 to reach an ATP final.
Hopes have been immense since, but he had never passed the third round at a Grand Slam in his first 21 attempts.
Bengali