LONDON — Taylor Fritz recovered from a mid-match lull during which a trainer treated him for a foot problem, and the American 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.
The fifth-seeded Fritz, who was the runner-up at last year’s U.S. Open, came in with a 1-4 record in Grand Slam quarterfinals, including 0-2 at Wimbledon. He’ll meet either two-time defending champion Carlos Alcaraz of Spain or unseeded Cam Norrie of Britain for a berth in the final.
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 he was dealing with 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 Khachanov got things to the tiebreaker, where the score was 4-4 before Fritz claimed the final three points.
Fritz finished with 16 aces and reached a top speed of 138 mph by the end.
Khachanov, who never has gone past the quarterfinals at Wimbledon, fell to 0-11 in Grand Slam matches against opponents ranked in the top five.