Taylor Fritz reached his first semi-final after defeating Alexander Zverev 7-6(2), 3-6, 6-4, 7-6(3) in the US Open quarter-finals. The 12th-seeded wants to be the first American man to win a major since Andy Roddick lifted the trophy in New York in 2003. However, he already matched another American legend’s record: Andre Agassi.
With this win over fourth-seeded Zverev, who is currently in the second spot for the ATP Finals race, Fritz now has four ATP Top-10 major wins, the most by an American man in one year since Agassi in 1999, according to ESPN.
“I feel amazing,” said Fritz in his on-court interview. “I’ve had a lot of looks at quarter-finals in the past couple of years, and today just felt different. I really feel that it was my time to take a step further and it’s only fitting I’m doing it here on this court at the [US] Open in front of this crowd.”
This year, Fritz already defeated Zverev in their fourth-round clash at Wimbledon in July, in which he outlasted the German in a thrilling five-setter. However, he lost to Lorenzo Musetti in the quarter-finals of that tournament.
Before this match, Fritz was 0-4 in quarter-finals matches in Grand Slams. However, his losses were against 24-time Slam champion Novak Djokovic, twice, and the other against 22-time Slam champion Rafael Nadal.
Fritz’ girlfriend Morgan Riddle quietly celebrated his win on Instagram
After his win, his girlfriend, social media fashion influencer, was there to support Fritz, whom she has been dating for the past four years. However, unlike his victory in Wimbledon, she celebrated without much words, only posting a video on her Instagram stories with the caption “semifinals!”, as well as reposting a picture of Fritz’s celebration.
Riddle’s lack of words probably are a response to the attention she got for the posts she published after Fritz’s last win over Zverev. At the time, she posted a video with the caption “when you man win 4 the girlies” which was interpreted as a dig at the German for his legal battles amid domestic abuse allegations (which he has repeatedly denied).
However, she later deleted the video and posted a story clarifying that they were “blown out of proportion” by the media. “They were not about anything that’s happened off the tennis court and there’s no bad blood between anyone. Super proud of T for the match yesterday, thank you to the crowd for the support,” she wrote at the time.