By Erik Gudris | Monday, July 4, 2022
Taylor Fritz breezed into his first-ever Wimbledon quarterfinal with a straight sets win over Australian qualifier Jason Kubler.
Photo credit: Getty
On this Fourth of July, American Taylor Fritz brought his own fireworks.
Fritz celebrated in style by reaching his first-ever career major quarterfinal at Wimbledon.
The 11th-seeded Fritz enjoyed yet another straight sets win this fortnight as he defeated Australian qualifier Jason Kubler 6-3, 6-1, 6-4 to reach the coveted elite eight.
“A first Grand Slam quarterfinal, it’s a really big deal. To be a part of the final eight, and I’m glad I could get the win on the fourth of July, being an American. It’s great, being in my first quarterfinal, it just shows that all the hard work I’m putting in is paying off,” Fritz said in his on-court interview.
Fritz, the highest-ranking American man on the ATP tour, is enjoying a breakthrough 2022 season. That includes winning his first-ever ATP 1000 Masters title earlier this season at Indian Wells along with the Eastbourne warm-up grass event a few weeks ago. Fritz is currently riding an eight-match win streak on grass and has yet to drop a set so far at Wimbledon.
While this Wimbledon saw four American men reach the fourth round of the event, the most ever since 1999, Fritz now finds himself the last U.S. man standing in the men’s singles draw.
The fourth-round meeting between Fritz and Kubler proved to be all one way traffic for most of the match. Fritz easily claimed the first set and then quickly took the second set 6-1 with a potent forehand winner.
The 24-year-old Fritz, after nailing a pinpoint backhand winner to secure an early 3-1 service break lead in the third set looked on his way to a quick victory. Yet, the World No. 99 Kubler, who knocked out No. 28 seed Dan Evans and then later Jack Sock on his way to a career best Wimbledon this year, had other ideas.
Kubler immediately broke back for the first time in the match after Fritz sent a backhand wide while down break point. Kubler kept it close with Fritz for most of the set by slowing the rallies down and forcing Fritz to come up with spectacular winners, including a diving volley winner at one stage.
The 14th-ranked Fritz finally had his chance to close things out while up 5-4 on serve. Kubler soon faced multiple match points against him on his serve but managed to hold Fritz off. But later, Kubler tossed in a double fault to hand Fritz a fourth match point that he soon converted to secure the straight sets win in just two hours.
"When I'm feeling good on my serve, I love playing on grass because it just feels like it's tougher to get broken," Fritz said. "My slider serves work off the court a lot more. I like to serve those quite a bit.
"I guess on grass, like, I'll chip a lot more returns. It works for me because it stays low on the grass. On hard court I don't typically do that.
"There's positives and negatives, I'd say. The most important thing for grass is that I'm serving well, and it's really been clicking for me the last two weeks, so that's been big."
Fritz struck 40 winners and broke Kubler’s serve five times for the win. He next faces either two-time champion Rafael Nadal or World No. 25 Botic van de Zandschulp. Fritz said he'd be fired up to face Nadal in an Indian Wells final rematch.
"I mean, it will be a really fun match. I want to play him," Fritz said. "I think that he probably really wants to beat me after Indian Wells. I think it will be really exciting.
"I think I'll probably get his best game. Like I said, he definitely, definitely wants to beat me, play me I guess 100% healthy this time.
"I'll just have to be very aggressive, play the big points well, serve well, do a lot of what I did in Indian Wells if I want to beat him."
Fritz aims to become the first American man to reach the Wimbledon semifinals since John Isner in 2018.