American Taylor Fritz earned his first berth in the final four of a major, beating No. 4 seed Alexander Zverev 7-6 (2), 3-6, 6-4, 7-6 (3) in the US Open quarterfinals Tuesday.
“I’ve had a lot of looks at quarterfinals over the last couple of years and today just felt different,” Fritz said. “I really felt like it was my time to take it a step further.”
It was the 12th-seeded Fritz’s fourth win over an ATP top-10 player in a major this season, the most by an American man in one year since Andre Agassi won five in 1999. Before this season, Fritz was 0-11 in majors against the ATP top 10.
Fritz beat Zverev, the 2020 US Open runner-up, in an epic five-setter at Wimbledon, and this time had the added boost of the home crowd being firmly on his side as he joined Frances Tiafoe (2022 US Open), Tommy Paul (2023 Australian Open) and Ben Shelton (2023 US Open) as the only active American men with major semifinal appearances.
Tiafoe could give the U.S. a second men’s semifinalist — and a guaranteed chance to play for the championship — when he faces No. 9 Grigor Dimitrov in the night session at Arthur Ashe Stadium. If he wins, the No. 20-seeded Tiafoe would play Fritz, the highest-ranked American, in Friday’s semis.
“That could be crazy, so I guess we’ll see what happens,” Fritz said, “but either way I’ll be ready to go.”
Fritz controlled the action behind his strong serving, winning 20 of 21 points on his first serve in the fourth set and 81% in the match. His 16 major match wins are the most by an American man in a year since Andy Roddick, who was also the last American man to win a Grand Slam, 21 years ago at the US Open.
ESPN Stats & Information, The Associated Press and Reuters contributed to this report.