Taylor Fritz knocks out No. 4 Alexander Zverev at US Open to reach first career Grand Slam semifinal

Taylor Fritz finally has his Grand Slam🌳 semi🧸final berth.

It took five quarterfinal appearances over a nine-year c🉐areer for the now highest-seeded American to finally break through, but Fritz seized a spot in the final four at the U.S. Open after knocking off World No. 4 Alexander Zverev 7-6 (2), 3-6, 6-4, 7-6 (3) at Arthur Ashe Stadium on Tuesday.

Usually reserved, Fritz couldn’t contain his emotion and let out an em♐phatic scream upon sealing the victory.

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That high, however, didn’t last very long.

“The emotion level is down,” he said. “It’s cool I’m in the semis, but I very much have the mindset🔯 of the job’s not done. I keep taking it one match at a time, like I’ve been all tournament, focused on the next match ahead of me. The way I came out today was different because I’ve just been in this siꦐtuation enough times.

“I think a question I got asked pretty much ♛every time I lost in my quarterfinals was what’s it going to take to go further? And the answer I gave was always just keep putting ﷺmyself in these situations, and I’ll become more comfortable and get better.

“That’s definitely what happened. The quart🔯erfinals didn’t𝐆 feel like this big thing to me.”

It may have been the biggest win of Fritz’s career, but i⛦t was an even bigger win for American men in tennis.

After Frances Tiafoe defeated No. 9-seeded Bulgarian Grigor 💦Dཧimitrov on Tuesday night, it will be an All-American semifinal between the World No. 𒊎20 and Fritz.

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This guarantees that one of them will 🔴get a shot at ending the 21-year drought since the last American man, Andy Rodick,ꦕ won the tournament in 2003.

Tuesday was just a🍒nother layer to a career year for Frit🌱z.

Not only is he just the fourth active American man to reach a Grand Slam semifinal after Tiafoe, Tommy Paul and Ben Shelt𒈔on, but Fritz also has four ATP Top-10 major wins — the most by an American in one year since Andre Agassi in 1999.

After stalling out in the quarterfinals at both the Australian Open and Wimbledon this y♉ear, Fritz is closer to his first Grand Slam tit🔴le than ever before.

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This wasn’t an out-of-the-ordinary match for Fritz and Zverevꦬ.

The two hav🔥e enjoyed some extremely close matches over the years, including Fritz’s comeback five-set victory over Zverev in the Round of 16 at Wimbledon earlier this summer.

In their 10 meetings, there have been 𒁃nine sets that required a tiebreaker.

Two of those sets were featured in Tuesday’s match, and Fritz triumphed in both — the first a🅰nd the last.

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Despite💯 coming out on the wꦫrong end of some of the match’s comparative statistics, Fritz delivered in big spots.

H🌜e finished with 12 aces compared to Zverev’s 14, while also commi✃tting six more unforced turnovers (48) than the German (42).

But Fritz was in the driver’s seat for a majority of the match, controlling the action behind his strong service game. He won 20 o🎐f 21 points on his first serve in the fourth set and 81 percent in the entire match.

“My backhand, I don’t remember since being on tour hitting my backhand this badly,” Zverev said. “I just don’t. I mean, I was missing shots which were in the middle of the court with no pace, and bottom of the net. Terrible. Just absolutely terrible by🌃 me.

“My forehand was OK, actually. My serve was OK. But my most reliable shot, the shot that I’m most known for, the shot that you normally wake me up at 3:00 a.m. and I would not miss, was absolutely not there today, and I have no words for it, to𝓡 be honest.”

Fritz and Zverev have traded off wins since 2018, with Zverev holding the edge, 5-4, coming into 🐓Tuesday’s match.

The two are now all evened up.

After his 💃fourth♏-round win over Casper Ruud, Fritz said he was sick of just making it to the quarterfinals.

After qualifying for the semis on Tuesda🦋y, he said he felt like it was his time to ༺take a step further.

We’ll see just how far Fritz can go.