Taylor Fritz banishes Centre Court ghosts with victory over Alexander Zverev

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Taylor Fritz made an impressive comeback after losing the first two sets to defeat Alexander Zverev and put the disappointment of his previous match on Centre Court behind him.

American player Fritz, who was seeded 13th, secured his spot in the quarter-finals at Wimbledon after a thrilling win that lasted three hours and 29 minutes. He triumphed with a score of 4-6, 6-7 (4), 6-4, 7-6 (3), 6-3.

When Fritz last competed on Centre Court in 2022, he unfortunately lost a five-set quarter-final match against Rafael Nadal.

The loss was so devastating for Fritz that he cried for weeks afterwards. However, it also marked Nadal's final time playing in SW19. The match was so intense that it caused the Spaniard to worsen an injury, leading to his withdrawal from the semi-final.

Fritz should have been more worried about the possibility of losing when he fell two sets behind to fourth seed Zverev, a player who had not lost a single service game all week.

However, the 26-year-old didn't give up and instead found inner strength to achieve a notable win.

"I felt incredible playing on Centre Court and coming back from being down two sets felt like a dream," he expressed.

"I felt I was performing at a high level, but it was frustrating to lose three games in a row. I decided to focus on one set at a time."

"It was a close match, with only a few points difference, so I decided to focus on each set individually in order to make a comeback."

Zverev had a knee brace on after falling hard during his third-round match against Cameron Norrie.

However, when playing on Centre Court with the roof closed, the server had the advantage of not having to worry about long rallies as long as he continued to serve powerful 135mph missiles.

Actually, the game-changing moment that Fritz initiated in the third set was the first time Zverev had encountered such a situation since the previous Tuesday.

I felt really frustrated to be performing so strongly and still end up losing in just three games.

After a brief moment of hope, Fritz managed to create two more opportunities to score points when the game was tied 4-4. Finally, a double-fault from Zverev, who is ranked number 12 in the world, allowed Fritz to get back into the match.

It ended up being the pivotal moment in the match when Fritz came out on top in the fourth set tie-break. He then managed to break early in the final set before celebrating his victory with arms wide open and a look of excitement in his eyes.

Zverev said that his knee injury affected him during the entire game.

He stated that it was pretty clear that he wasn't at his best today. Especially in the later sets, he had difficulty serving, jumping off his leg, and generating power.

The two players talked for a while at the net after the match, and Zverev was not happy with the behavior of some of Fritz's supporters in the player's area.

"Zverev mentioned that his team is very respectful. He also noted that there were some individuals in his box who may not have a deep knowledge of tennis or follow every match closely, and that their reactions were a bit exaggerated."

"No problems with Taylor at all. I believe Taylor is a fantastic person. I totally have no problems with him."

Fritz, who will play against Italian 25th seed Lorenzo Musetti in the next match, said: "It's completely okay for him to feel upset if they were bothering him. I don't know. That's one of the questions I asked him at the end, who was it?"

"It's not a major issue. Everything is fine."