The last remaining American on the men's side at Wimbledon, sixth-seeded Taylor Fritz will play in the quarterfinals after taking out Alexander Bublik 7-6, 6-4, 6-4 on Monday. Fritz -- who has only dropped one set during the tournament -- improved to 5-4 against Bublik in his career after notching his second win over the Kazakh this year and fourth out of their last five meetings overall.
"When I got my opportunities to break, I took them and when he got into some service games and had some looks, I played really well and served really well," Fritz said after the match. "When you have tow guys serving bigs and short points, it's going to come down to those key moments in the match."
Fritz whipped his forehand with success and was virtually flawless on serve with 20 aces and one double fault, ousting Bublik on Court 1 with relative ease. Bublik got his first break in the third game of the opening set before Fritz responded with a quick return of favor. From there, it was all Fritz after he finalized the set a 7-1 win in the tiebreaker before cruising in the second.
Fritz won 12 of 13 net point opportunities, including a slice winner near the end of the match to quickly wrap up his service game after Bublik thought his drop shot had his opponent out of position.
Bublik had beaten Frances Tiafoe in five sets during a marathon third-round match, but didn't muster nearly the same dominance on serve as he showed against the other American. He smiled and breathed a sigh of relief in the third after closing out a game with an underhanded ace, but by then, the match was decided against Fritz.
It was a methodical and masterful performance from Fritz, who finished off Bublik in just under 100 minutes.
Fritz's comfort level on grass holds true
The win was Fritz's 47th on grass since 2020, the most of any player on the ATP Tour. Over the last three years, Fritz is 33-6 overall on the surface, highlighted by a semifinal appearance last year at Wimbledon.
"I really like being rewarded for taking risks and hitting good shots and I think (grass) is great for my serve and suits my backhand," Fritz said last month in Germany. "I think I return pretty bad on every other surface anyways, so I feel like return the same on grass, it's not bad."
Most grass court wins on ATP Tour since 2020
| Player | Wins |
|---|---|
Taylor Fritz | 47 |
Alexander Bublik | 39 |
Alex De Minaur | 39 |
Danil Medvedev | 39 |
No active American is more comfortable on grass and his game is built for the surface. His first serve earns plenty of free points, his flat groundstrokes stay low through the court and he's one of the tour's best at shortening rallies when the pressure rises.
Fritz has already proven he belongs in the latter stages at the All-England Club after breaking through with the semifinal run, and he's carried that confidence into each grass-court swing since. Fritz continues to stack wins on the surface and now waltzes into the quarterfinals with a chance to continue forward.
The challenge, of course, remains finishing the job against the sport's elite. Fritz will have to potentially get through French Open champion Alexander Zverev to reach the semifinals if the German beats Jiri Lehecka later on Monday. Jannik Sinner and 24-time grand slam champion Novak Djokovic also remain in the draw.
Fritz is playing with confidence confidence on the surface and appears to have a strong belief this could finally be his time.
