World No. 39 Taylor Fritz‘s week just improves with every passing day as the Californian boy defeats World No. 4 Alexander Zverev in a thrilling 3-set quarter-final, winning the match 4-6, 6-3, 7-6(3), and saved two match points to snatch the victory and record his second Top-10 win of the week and third Top-20 win of the week having defeated Matteo Berrettini, Jannik Sinner and now Zverev.
Given Zverev’s sensational form over the past few months with the German winning the Gold at the delayed 2020 Tokyo Olympics, winning the 2021 Cincinnati Masters, making it to the semis of the 2021 US Open only to lose against Novak Djokovic in a one for the ages 5-setter thriller, not many predicted a victory for Fritz given that he had surgery just 4 months ago.
Nevertheless, the American with the support of the crowd cheering for the local boy, Fritz battled the odds and now moves into his first Masters-1000 semi-final and will be riding high on confidence after some sensational victories this week against some very quality opponents who have enjoyed great success this season.
“It’s amazing, especially the way that match ended, just the whole match, it was such high emotions until the very end and the crowd was just amazing, it’s a dream come true really,” said Fritz in his post-match on-court interview thanking the crowd for their relentless support throughout the nearly 2.5 hour battle between him and Sascha.
Taylor Fritz will be the lowest ranked semi-finalist this year in the desert
The Indian Wells Masters is always a historic event for its grandeur and a week that sees some of the best tennis of the season. This year, however, history is created at the event as it becomes the first occasion in the history of ATP-1000 Masters event that, all the four semi-finalists are ranked outside the Top-25 of the ATP singles rankings.
World No. 26 Cameron Norrie, World No. 28 Grigor Dimitrov, World No. 36 Nikoloz Basilashvili and World No. 39 Taylor Fritz will be the four semi-finalists competing for their maiden Indian Wells title and have made it so far in the event for the first time as well.
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