By Shrivathsa Sridhar
LONDON, July 8 (Reuters) – Alexander Zverev cleared one of the biggest hurdles in his bid for the Wimbledon title by snapping a lengthy losing run against Taylor Fritz with a 6-4 6-4 6-2 win to make the semi-finals and stay on track for back-to-back Grand Slam triumphs.
Having come up short in his last seven clashes with Fritz, including at the All England Club in 2024, French Open champion Zverev finally turned the tables with an assured display for a last-four meeting with Arthur Fery, who beat Flavio Cobolli.
By reaching his maiden Wimbledon semi-final, Zverev became the fifth German man to achieve the feat in the professional era that began in 1968, joining Boris Becker, Michael Stich, Rainer Schuettler and Tommy Haas.
“It sounds great. I hope to play two more matches here, so we’ll see how it goes, but for now I’m extremely happy to be in the semi-finals especially after beating Taylor, who I hadn’t won against in more than two years,” Zverev said.
“He’s been beating me for two years straight, and yeah, I played a fantastic match.”
ZVEREV ROARS IN RELIEF
The German second seed rode an early break to a 5-4 lead and let out a roar of relief after fending off a late fightback from Fritz in the 10th game to win the opening set under the blazing sun on Court One.
Zverev turned up the heat again in the next set after Fritz received a medical timeout for a niggling right knee issue after three games, and the 29-year-old celebrated emphatically after seizing a crucial break that left his opponent on the ropes.
The crowd erupted in cheers a few moments later when news trickled in that Briton Fery had gone ahead two sets to love on Centre Court and Zverev soon followed suit with a comfortable hold to move further clear as Fritz’s hopes began to fade.
“Nothing on a tennis court is ever easy. If I would play my 5-year-old daughter, then it would maybe be easy … for her, but I knew I had to focus from the first moment,” Zverev said.
“The first game on my serve, I had three breakpoints against me and I knew that it’s going to be a difficult match, no matter what, since it’s in the back of your mind that you haven’t beaten an opponent for more than two years.
“I knew that I had to play an almost perfect match to have a chance, and I feel like I did that today.”
ZVEREV AND FERY BREAK NEW GROUND
Zverev hit a scintillating backhand winner to seal a double break at 4-1 in the third set, which he closed out with minimum fuss to reach his 12th major semi-final overall and continue to break new ground in southwest London like home hope Fery.
“You guys can all be for Fery,” Zverev joked with the crowd. “It’s totally fine. I understand and I don’t have a problem with it. I hope it’ll be good for me, not so good for everyone else.
“But no, look, it’s going to be an exciting day for both of us, first time in the semi-finals at Wimbledon. For him, it’s a ‘Fery-tale’ story. You see what I did there? Yeah, there you go. Very clever. But I have to trust myself and trust my tennis.
“Hopefully I can show a good performance and then we’ll see what happens.”
(Reporting by Shrivathsa Sridhar in London; Editing by Alison Williams)
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