Taylor Fritz Goes Toe-To-Toe With Rafael Nadal Before Falling In Wimbledon Quarterfinals

Taylor Fritz celebrates a point against Rafael Nadal (Spain) during their men's singles quarterfinal at The Championships, Wimbledon 2022 on July 6, 2022 in London.

After trading the first four sets with Rafael Nadal in their Wimbledon men’s quarterfinal match on Wednesday, then playing to a 6-6 deadlock in the fifth set, the California-born Fritz finally fell in the tiebreaker. 


But even the tiebreaker was a fight. 


After Nadal took a 5-0 lead, Fritz cut it to 5-3 before ultimately falling 10-4. 


The 11th-seeded Fritz became the first U.S. man to make the quarterfinals at a Grand Slam since the 2020 Australian Open. The quarterfinal run also marked his best career finish in a Grand Slam. The 24-year-old had previously gotten as far as the fourth round at the 2022 Australian Open. 


However, he didn’t quite have enough to overcome Nadal, the all-time men’s leader with 22 Grand Slam singles titles. The 36-year-old Spaniard is coming off a win last month at the French Open. 


Following Wednesday’s matches at the All England Club, three Americans remain active in Wimbledon. In women’s doubles, the all-U.S. team of Danielle Collins and Desirae Krawczyk defeated No. 11 Erin Routliffe of New Zealand and Alicja Rosolska of Poland in Wednesday’s quarterfinals and face top-seeded Elise Mertens of Belgium and Zhang Shuai of China in Friday’s semifinals. 


Rajeev Ram is the other American still playing. A 2016 Olympic silver medalist in mixed doubles, Ram and partner Joe Salisbury of Great Britain will meet Australians Matthew Ebden and Max Purcell in the men’s doubles semifinals on Friday. Ram and Salisbury are the tournament’s top seed. 


Ram has won men’s doubles titles at the Australian Open and US Open but has never advanced past the semifinals at Wimbledon. 


Jack Sock’s three-pronged Wimbledon quest officially ended earlier Wednesday. 


Qualifying as a wild-card in men’s singles, Sock won two singles matches before falling to Australia’s Jason Kubler in the third round on Saturday. 


His best prospects were always going to be in doubles, though. 


A 2016 Olympic gold and bronze medalist in mixed and men’s doubles, Sock answered an open call on Twitter from rising star Coco Gauff, and the duo went on to reach the semifinals before losing to Ebden and fellow Australian Samantha Stosur 6-3, 5-7, 7-5 in the semifinals on Wednesday. That came one day after Sock and U.S. partner Denis Kudla lost in a walkover in the men’s doubles quarterfinals. 


In the women’s quarterfinals Wednesday, Amanda Anisimova fell 6-2, 6-4 to Romania’s Simona Halep on Centre Court. Halep, seeded No. 16, won the last Wimbledon she entered in 2019 but didn’t have a chance to defend her title in 2020 and 2021, first because the tournament was canceled for COVID and then because of an injury. 


The 20-year-old Anisimova, seeded 20th, reached the quarterfinals of a Grand Slam for the second time, after previously making the French Open semis in 2019. 

Chrös McDougall has covered the Olympic and Paralympic Movement for TeamUSA.org since 2009 on behalf of Red Line Editorial, Inc. He is based in Minneapolis-St. Paul.