LONDON — Alexander Zverev broke through one of the biggest obstacles standing between him and a Wimbledon championship on Tuesday, defeating Taylor Fritz 6-4, 6-4, 6-2 to advance to the semi-finals and keep alive his bid for back-to-back Grand Slam titles.
Zverev, the French Open champion and second seed, had lost his previous seven matches against Fritz — including a defeat at Wimbledon in 2024 — but put that streak firmly to rest with a commanding performance. His next opponent will be Arthur Fery, the British hope who defeated Flavio Cobolli to earn his own spot in the final four.
With the victory, Zverev became just the fifth German man to reach a Wimbledon semi-final in the professional era, which dates back to 1968. He joins an elite group that includes 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 told the crowd after the match. “He’s been beating me for two years straight, and yeah, I played a fantastic match.”
Zverev got off to a strong start on Court One, earning an early break to build a 5-4 lead in the opening set. He let out an audible roar of relief after holding off a late push from Fritz in the 10th game to close out the first set under bright sunshine.
Fritz’s momentum was further disrupted in the second set when he took a medical timeout after three games to address a nagging right knee issue. Zverev capitalized, breaking Fritz decisively and celebrating with visible emotion as his opponent’s chances began to slip away.
The crowd on Court One briefly shifted its attention to Centre Court, where news spread that Briton Fery had taken a two-set lead in his own match. Zverev held serve comfortably and continued to pull away.
“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.”
In the third set, Zverev delivered a stunning backhand winner to go up a double break at 4-1 and closed out the match without difficulty, reaching his 12th Grand Slam semi-final overall.
Zverev had some lighthearted words for the crowd when asked about facing the popular home favorite Fery in the semi-finals. “You guys can all be for Fery,” he joked. “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.”
He added: “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.”
