U.S. Open 2024: American Taylor Fritz pulls stunning upset to reach semifinal

The men’s draw at the 2024 U.S. Open has been full of surprises since the very start of the tournament, and the upsets continued in the quarterfinals. Taylor Fritz is into the semifinals after outlasting No. 4 seed Alexander Zverev 7-6, 3-6, 6-4, 7-6 in a grueling match that saw the No. 12 seed American fight back to win a classic third set and take home the victory in the fourth set tiebreaker.

It’s the first time Fritz has reached a grand slam semifinal in his career.

Fritz claimed the first set by winning the tiebreak 6-2 after both competitors held serve before then. Zverev roared back to claim the second set without much drama, and appeared to be in control of the match until Fritz broke his serve early in the third set. Fritz survived a break by Zverev to win the last two service games to claim the set. The fourth set saw both players hold serve until Fritz took control in the tiebreaker 7-3.

Fritz was consistently winning points when he landed his first serve. Zverev was serving with more velocity throughout the match, but Fritz was able to recover to win enough points to take the match.

There were several long rallies throughout the match that saw both players bring out a high level of play from each other.

Could we see two American men facing off in the semfinals? Fritz now plays the winner of No. 20 seed Frances Tiafoe vs. No. 9 seed Grigor Dimitrov. A Tiafoe win would guarantee an American is playing in the U.S. Open men’s final. No American has won the tournament or any grand slam event since Andy Roddick in 2003.

No. 1 seed Jannik Sinner vs. No. 5 seed Daniil Medvedev, and No. 25 seed Jack Draper vs. No. 10 seed Alex de Minaur make up the other quarterfinal matchups on Wednesday in the men’s bracket.

Fritz was hyped after the match:

The two biggest favorites are already out of the 2024 U.S. Open in Carlos Alcaraz and Novak Djokovic. Fritz is starting to believe he’s on a run of destiny.