Taylor Fritz produced a dominant serving display, firing 23 aces to defeat 10th seed Alexander Bublik 7-6 (1), 6-4, 6-4 in one hour and 38 minutes on Court No 1, advancing to the Wimbledon quarter-finals. The American, a semi-finalist two years ago, evoked memories of Pete Sampras with his powerful serves and clean hitting.
Fritz's near-flawless performance
Fritz hit 47 winners and made only eight unforced errors, breaking Bublik's serve three times. The only break he conceded came in the third game of the match, which he immediately recovered. The first-set tie-break proved decisive, with Fritz winning it 7-1. At 4-4 in the second set, play was interrupted by noise from Centre Court and Henman Hill; upon resuming, Bublik double-faulted to go down 0-30, and two short drop shots gave Fritz the break. Fritz sealed the second set when Bublik hit a jump smash into the back fence, laughing. A break in the third game of the third set effectively ended the contest, despite Bublik's trademark underarm serve that won a point.
“I’m super happy with it,” Fritz said. “When I got my opportunities to break, I took them. When he got in some service games, had some looks and there were some scary moments, I served really well to get out of those situations. I thought I played really well. It’s a big thing in grand slams to get through matches without killing yourself on court. I had a tough one in the last round and it feels good to have a smooth one.”
De Minaur's 'gut-wrenching' defeat
Fifth seed Alex de Minaur, who reached the French Open final last month and the Wimbledon quarter-finals last year, suffered a 7-5, 7-6 (4), 6-3 loss to Italy's Flavio Cobolli. De Minaur led 5-2 in the second set and had an early break in the third, but he became too passive and allowed Cobolli to dictate play.
“One of us went out to win the match and the other went out not to lose the match,” de Minaur said. “It breaks me inside. That’s the reality of it. Many, many hours get put into my craft, and countless years to kind of have moments like these. To not step up to the plate, it’s truly gut wrenching. You go through moments in your career, times where you feel that there are opportunities to be taken … to make it to the next level … and to fall short constantly, you start doubting yourself. The goals, the beliefs, the dreams that you have, they kind of start fading away.”
Cobolli, who had no accommodation booked before the match, later found a house lent by an Italian family. “I found the solution to play my tennis against his tennis,” he said. “That’s why I think I won. I beat him also on strategy. I played an amazing level.”
Zverev match postponed
The late match between Alexander Zverev and Jiri Lehecka was suspended due to the 11pm curfew, with Zverev leading 6-4, 7-5, 3-3. The match will resume on Tuesday.
