Lorenzo Musetti Triumphs Over Taylor Fritz to Reach First Grand Slam Semifinal at Wimbledon 2024
Lorenzo Musetti defeated Taylor Fritz in a thrilling five-set encounter to secure his first Grand Slam semifinal berth on Wimbledon’s No. 1 Court.
This triumph sets up Friday’s much awaited matchup with Novak Djokovic. On Wednesday night, it was 6:40 p.m. on the No. 1 Court of Wimbledon. Lorenzo Musetti, four points from making his first-ever Grand Slam semifinal appearance, stepped up to serve on the south end of the court. In the fifth set, Musetti now had a 5-1 lead over Taylor Fritz.
Observing Musetti compete will evoke a range of feelings in you. He can be a strange combination of a passive shot maker, quite reactive by nature, and eager to respond to an opponent’s inquiry with a pointed one of his own. Above all, Musetti’s one-handed backhand may elicit pleasure when he rolls it up-the-line or cross-court by turning his shoulders.
However, there are also times when poor choices are made, intermittent play occurs, and concentration and fitness drastically decline. As a result, Musetti’s next moves were still rather unpredictable despite having such a large advantage. In what way would he begin this possibly decisive match?
Easy: With a speed of 126 mph on the ace. The rally was then swiftly taken over by Musetti, who fired another 122 mph serve down the middle, forcing a Fritz forehand error. After two points, with a 30-point lead, Musetti sliced a forehand drop shot that knocked Fritz down. At 40-15, Musetti watched a forehand return sail long after slicing his serve wide, this time at 121 mph. By now, it was 6:43 p.m. Following his victories of 3-6, 7-6 (5), 6-2, 3-6, and 6-1, Musetti will now take on Novak Djokovic on Friday.
After winning in the quarterfinals, Musetti remarked, “For me, it’s kind of a magic day.” “I must admit that I will move into the second position in my job today with the birth of my kid. Naturally, this is the best day of my life in terms of my job.
Three hours and twenty-four minutes of extreme momentum fluctuations had preceded those last three minutes. The favorite was Fritz. Two years prior, he had triumphed over Musetti in this same venue in straight sets. In the preceding round, he had displayed remarkable tennis, overcoming a two-set deficit to overcome the fourth-seeded Alexander Zverev.
However, Musetti was the one who took charge on the two occasions during this match that Fritz had seemed like he was about to back down. The first arrived early. At 1-2, Fritz broke Musetti’s serve, and he barely faced any resistance the rest of the set. Above all, Fritz prevailed in an astounding 67% of his second serve points. At this moment, Musetti didn’t seem to know how he was going to win three sets of points.
Additionally, Fritz appeared to be poised to win the match when he intercepted Musetti’s serve to begin the second set. However, Musetti awoke abruptly, broke Fritz at fifteen, and then launched into a brilliant medley. Over the course of the next two sets, lob volleys, drives, slices, drop shots, and more were displayed. After winning the first two sets in spectacular fashion, Musetti dominated the third.
Fritz had the opportunity to rally now. He saved all three of those break points with outstanding smashes, such as a wide 109 mph ace and a crosscourt backhand winner, while serving at 2-2, love-40. Fritz hit a tremendous inside-in forehand and eventually held as he stared down another break point. Fritz held at love, breaking Musetti at 3–4, and reappeared in the driver’s seat.
However, Fritz netted a simple forehand in the fifth game with a point to hold for 1-all. Musetti was almost unstoppable after that, performing even better than he had in the second and third sets. When asked if his previous five-setter against Zverev had left him tired, Fritz answered the court conditions had nothing to do with it.
“There will be a significant difference in the way it feels when I play Sascha with the roof closed,” he remarked. “The surroundings are wonderful. The breeze is absent. The location of the ball is always known to you. You strike up such a nice beat. I’m now playing a player who slices and moves the ball in response to the wind. It’s difficult.”
“I thought that the most important thing was probably that I needed to be able to set up, generate power, and really pinpoint where I wanted to hit the shot when I was playing someone who played like him. You won’t be able to strike the ball as hard off of the dead slices, so I have to be quite precise.
Fritz’s reference to Musetti’s slice was appropriate considering that Ken Rosewall, the best slice backhand player in tennis history, was there at the court to watch the match. Musetti used the slice skillfully, combining it with drives in a way that caused 36 unintentional errors from the Fritz forehand.
“I can’t win a point with a good baseliner like Taylor if you play every time flat,” Musetti remarked. Truly, I am engaging in his game. Thus, trying to lead the game and mix every ball was most likely the plan.
In 2022, Fritz had also advanced to the quarterfinals, but Rafael Nadal defeated him in a fifth-set tiebreaker. “This may sound weird, but I believe the one from two years ago hurt even more because I was just a few points away from winning,” Fritz remarked. “I think this one is a little more—I’m probably a little more disappointed maybe—but I don’t know if that one hurt more.”
Musetti has also experienced disappointment with Grand Slams. At Roland Garros, he’s taken Djokovic to five sets twice; the previous time was last month. Musetti stated tonight, “I mean, I’ve had many, many tough losses.” Naturally, the French Open had the best results prior to this week. Naturally, I believe that my maturity and experience have increased. I think that losing to all of the major champions forced me to reflect and strive harder.
For a long time, inspiration has been a staple of many Musetti matches. But today, it was accompanied by extraordinary perseverance and, above all, grace under duress. The father recently made a memorable experience for his son to share.
