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Taylor Fritz has ended his quarter-final hoodoo by reaching the last four of the US Open.
The 26-year-old American had lost all of his previous four last-eight matches at a grand slam but put that right on home soil by beating Alexander Zverev 7-6 (2) 3-6 6-4 7-6 (3) on Arthur Ashe.
Fritz is flying the flag for the United States and has his eyes set on becoming the first men’s home champion in New York since Andy Roddick 21 years ago.
With Novak Djokovic going out in the third round, the section of the draw has opened up and Fritz will play either fellow compatriot Frances Tiafoe or veteran Bulgarian player Grigor Dimitrov in Friday’s semi-final.
“I feel amazing, I have had a lot of looks at quarter-finals over the last few years and today just felt different,” he said.
“I really felt like it was my time to go a step further. It’s only fitting I’m doing it here on this court at the Open in front of this crowd.
“I think the way I came out today was different because I just have been in this situation enough times.
“I think a question I got asked pretty much every time I lost in my quarter-finals was, ‘What’s it going to take to go further?’, and the answer I gave was always, just keep putting myself in these situations, and I’ll become more comfortable in these situations and get better.
“That’s definitely what happened now. The quarter-finals didn’t feel like, I don’t know, this big thing to me like it has been, I guess, in the past. It just felt like another tournament.”
For Zverev, this will be a bitter pill to swallow as his quest for a first grand slam title goes on.
The German, a US Open in New York in 2020, did not think much of his performance.
“I did nothing to deserve to win,” he said. “It’s as simple as that.
“I played terrible. Terrible. Just absolutely terrible by me.
“I have no words for it, to be honest.”
