Taylor Fritz Stuns Alexander Zverev with Dramatic Wimbledon 2024 Comeback Victory

On Monday afternoon, the American was in a familiar situation: he was down a lot in a Gand Slam mid-round match against a higher-ranked European opponent. Rafael Nadal, Casper Ruud, Novak Djokovic, Stefanos Tsitsipas, and Zverev himself: Over the past few years, Fritz has faced them all in the majors quarterfinals or round of 16, and he has nearly always lost. Would his talent only allow him to go thus far?

Fritz appeared as though he would once more be packing his bags following the fourth round for over two hours on Monday. He trailed Zverev by two sets to love and didn’t appear to be able to capitalize on a knee problem that made the German move cautiously anytime he needed to make a long run.

Zverev’s injury had actually helped him since it made him loosen up and try to wrap up rallies more quickly. His aggressive play paid off as he rattled off a string of baseline wins that won him the opening set break and the second set tiebreaker.

The physical constraints Zverev faced also appeared to highlight Fritz’s shortcomings as a shot-caller. Despite his best efforts, he was unable to sufficiently dislodge Zverev. To be honest, trying to take advantage of the injury just distracted Fritz from his typical see-ball-hit-ball style of play.

“I was trying to move the ball around a little more halfway through the first set,” Fritz remarked. “I attacked right away, possibly a touch too much, going into his forehand. He was prepared for it. He was making extremely good forehand strikes.

The turning point occurred early in the third set when Fritz let go of his goals and concentrated more on ensuring he didn’t lose the match in straight sets than on winning it.

Fritz remarked, “I felt like I was playing really well for being down two sets.” “Let’s take the third set. It would be awful to play this brilliantly and lose in three straight. I had the impression that I could turn things around one set at a time.

In the third set, Fritz was serving at 1-1 and down 0-30 when, in that one stroke, the match changed. His initial serve was dropped, and it looked like his second ball was leaving the T. However, it abruptly leaned sharply to the left and came to rest on the line’s back.

Fritz won the point and the score changed from 0–40 to 15–30 when the chalk flew up. He held after that with two deft drop strokes. At 4-4, a few games later, Zverev double-failed twice, and he broke. Fritz stated, “The most important thing was to just keep holding serve and being aggressive.”

Fritz held onto his serve six times in the fourth set, forcing a tiebreaker. It was there that his aggressiveness ultimately caused Zverev to crumble. He hit an ace, two service winners, a smash, a forehand and backhand winner, and a superb passing shot following a lengthy run in the breaker.

He defeated Zverev in the fifth set by outlasting him over a string of protracted rallies. He sealed the deal with a backhand that skidded through the court on match point, earning his 69th victory of the day.

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