Wimbledon: Taylor Fritz advances to semi-final after battling Khachanov comeback

LONDON: Fifth seed Taylor Fritz advanced to the Wimbledon semi-finals for the first time after battling in-form Karen Khachanov on Tuesday, where the American seemed to be sinking, but then kept his cool to clinch the victory.

Fritz claimed the match 6-3, 6-4, 1-6, 7-6(4), but must have thought he was at the top of the game in the first two sets, but could not finish the way he would have wanted.

The 17th seed, Russia's Khachanov, won eight of the nine games to claim the third set and move a break up in the fourth.

Fritz, however, showed his class by keeping his cool to immediately break back, regain control of his service, and achieve success in the decisive tiebreak.

The American said that he had never experienced such a match where he felt in control and then made so many mistakes suddenly.

"I've never really had the match change like that so drastically where I felt so in control, playing great, serving great," Fritz said.

"I didn't feel like my serve was in danger, I felt like I was putting a lot of pressure on his serve.

"I felt like I couldn't miss and then, out of nowhere, I just started making a ton of mistakes. So I really just had to fight to get that break back in the fourth and kind of just get the match back to neutral."

It got to 4-4 on serve in the second before Khachanov was broken to love and Fritz served out to love, leading the match by two sets.

It all changed dramatically and unexpectedly in the third when Fritz, who was playing in control, was broken twice, as Khachanov finally found a way to get his serves back.

Khachanov visibly grew in confidence and played aggressively to gain a 2-0 fourth-set lead.

However, Fritz managed to stem the bleeding by immediately breaking back and then rediscovering his serve dominance, taking the fourth set in the tiebreak.

Fritz will face defending champion Carlos Alcaraz in semi-final.