LAST UPDATE | 8 Jul 2024
TAYLOR FRITZ MOUNTED a stirring comeback from two sets down to dump fourth seed Alexander Zverev out of Wimbledon on Monday, winning their fourth-round match 4-6, 6-7 (4/7), 6-4, 7-6 (7/3), 6-3.
Confronted with Zverev’s relentless serve, American 13th seed Fritz looked to be heading home but broke the German on the way to winning the third set.
It was the first time the former world number two had been broken in the entire tournament.
Fritz, who won the Eastbourne International on grass last month, edged the fourth set on a tie-break.
Flying Fritz 😮@Taylor_Fritz97 put it all on the line with this diving volley 👏#Wimbledon pic.twitter.com/gxrckIdEPt
— Wimbledon (@Wimbledon) July 8, 2024
Hitting freely, the American broke again in the fourth game of the decider when Zverev, who looked like he had no answer to his opponent’s power, went long with a forehand.
Fritz powered through his service game to lead 5-2 and although Zverev clung on, Fritz sealed the match in style.
“It was amazing to do that on Centre Court, two sets down in front of this crowd. It’s a dream,” he said.
“The thing was I still felt I was playing really well for being down two sets. I was just thinking it sucked to be playing this well and to lose in straights.
“So let’s take the third, I took it one at a time. I had that belief. It was just a couple of points here and there.”
The American, who hit a total of 69 winners against 23 unforced errors, will face Italian 25th seed Lorenzo Musetti in the quarter-finals.
Fritz spread his arms wide and roared as he celebrated his epic fightback in a match lasting nearly three-and-a-half hours.
It is his second appearance in the Wimbledon quarter-finals after he lost a five-set thriller to Rafael Nadal in 2022.
Defeat for Zverev means the German, who reached the semi-finals at the 2024 Australian Open and was runner-up at Roland Garros last month, has still never reached the last eight at Wimbledon.
Meanwhile, Novak Djokovic accused Wimbledon fans of “disrespect” in a withering on-court tirade after reaching a 60th Grand Slam quarter-final and 15th at the All England Club.
World number two Djokovic, the seven-time champion at Wimbledon and chasing a record-setting 25th major, defeated 15th-ranked Holger Rune 6-3, 6-4, 6-2.
Djokovic then launched a bitter outburst at a section of Centre Court fans who constantly chanted “Rune” throughout the match, echoing the shouts of “Root”, popularised by cricket fans in the country in support of former England cricket skipper Joe Root.
“To all the fans that have had respect and stayed here tonight, I thank you from the bottom of my heart and I appreciate it,” said an angry Djokovic.
“And to all those people that have chosen to disrespect the player — in this case me — have a goooooooood night,” he added, mocking his tormentors.
A 15th visit to the #Wimbledon quarter-finals, and a 60th Grand Slam quarter-final in total for Novak Djokovic 💪
— Wimbledon (@Wimbledon) July 8, 2024
The No.2 seed defeats Holger Rune 6-3, 6-4, 6-2 to book his place once again in the last eight 👏 pic.twitter.com/gvuPXIle9j
When told by the TV interviewer that some fans were shouting “Rune” rather than booing, Djokovic hit back.
“They were. They were. I am not accepting it. No no no. I know they were cheering for Rune but that’s an excuse to also boo,” he said.
“Listen, I have been on the tour for more than 20 years. I know all the tricks. I focus on the respectful people that pay for the ticket, and love tennis and appreciate the players.
“I have played in much more hostile environments, trust me -– you guys can’t touch me.”
The 37-year-old Serb, still sporting a knee support on his right leg after undergoing surgery last month, set the tone for Monday’s fourth-round tie when Rune failed to win a single point in the opening three games.
He saved a break point in the 10th game of the second set before carving out another key break in the first game of the third.
Djokovic goes on to face Australian ninth seed Alex de Minaur for a place in the semi-finals.
Earlier, former champion Elena Rybakina defeated an injury-hit Anna Kalinskaya to reach her third successive Wimbledon quarter-final.
World number four Rybakina, the 2022 Wimbledon winner from Kazakhstan, took the first set against the 18th-ranked Russian 6-3 on Centre Court.
Kalinskaya required a medical time-out at 3-4 down to treat what appeared to be neck and wrist injuries.
Rybakina then won the next five games before Kalinskaya called it quits.
Moscow-born Rybakina has now joined Margaret Court, Maria Sharapova, Evonne Goolagong, Chris Evert and Billie Jean King by winning 18 of her first 20 matches at Wimbledon.
She will take on either Elina Svitolina, the 21st seed from Ulkraine, or Wang Xinyu of China for a place in the semi-finals.
Former French Open champion Jelena Ostapenko beat Iga Swiatek’s conqueror Yulia Putintseva 6-2, 6-3 to reach the quarter-finals.
Tha 27-year-old Latvian, whose only Grand Slam title came at the French Open in 2017, broke her Kazakh opponent five times in the match, hitting 29 winners against 26 unforced errors.
The 13th seed, a semi-finalist at Wimbledon in 2018, next faces either US 11th seed Danielle Collins or Barbora Krejcikova of the Czech Republic.
Russian-born Putintseva, ranked 35, beat world number one Swiatek in the last 32 on Saturday.
6.Stephen Ward has over stayed his welcome.
And yet we keep inviting him whenever there’s a party!
#6 we need Jack Grealish.
Depends on if Real Madrid will continue to allow him play international football.
I heard Bayern Munich aren’t going to sign him.
Barcelona see him as a viable replacement for Xavi
And Wes Hoolahan. I heard PSG had an 11th hour deadline day bid rejected for him.
Robbie Keane is still the best Irish striker around full stop. Please write one article where The Score is not writing him off. It’s getting tiring after 4 years.
I’m not writing him off Johnny. I actually called for him to start this match (http://jrnl.ie/1654834). I’m just making the point that he needs someone alongside him in attack to be fully effective – he’s said as much himself in interviews.
The only one blaming David forde was an article on here earlier. ..mot us
He’s a conflicted reporter.
Plenty of well-known people on Twitter were also suggesting that he could have done better for the game, which I obviously disagreed with.
I dunno.
3 points in the first game is a great result.
Poor performance, as many have stated but I cannot see who we have that will be much better.
I totally agreed with the decision not to play Wes away from home.
I like him as a player, but he is not the top class playmaker some make him out to be.
I think the real issue with Wes Hoolihan is not Wes, but Robbie Keane. You can’t play them in the same team. Trap (as much as I disagreed with his tactics, saw that), and Keane works better off someone close to him. It’s why I think he tried to compromise things today by including Walters on the right. Brady would have been a better choice for Walters. When you play the formation O’Neill played, you need the flexibility for your forward wingers to be able to exchange roles. Coleman never got forward enough from right back, and wasn’t given the ball from the centre when he did on occassion get forward. I’ve no idea why O’Neill didn’t switch McGeady to the right. Bringing on Pilkington or even Hoolihan would have allowed that.
Let’s put things in perspective. There’s been a lot of rubbish talked today. If Ireland are actually serious about qualifying out of this group automatically, then a side like Georgia is bread and butter. Today’s result was good on paper, but it hid deficiencies in the Irish team. Remove McGeady, who had an outstanding game, and you are left with a team that had a limited amount to offer. I get sick of this “overplaying” the significance of the opponets. Teams that qualify for tournaments don’t do that. We’ve heard a lot today from O’Neill about how hard it is to play Georgia (especially away from home) and get a result. We got a result today, that’s all we got, the performance was poor at times. But let’s not fool ourselves with the “other teams have to come here” line, because, guess what, they will, and it’s unlikely Germany, Poland and Scotland will make the hard work we made of it.
The football media suggested a gauntlet had been thown down by Ireland’s last gasp victory. Eh, no it hasn’t. This was a team Ireland played various times over the past decade or more and beat every time. Let’s stop playing up small opponets. Serious teams meaning to qualify don’t do that.
The real results tonight Ireland should take note of were Scotland taking the game to Germany and proving you can get try& something from them if you have the balls to test their defence. Poland started slowly tonight, but ultimately ripped apart Gibraltar 7-0. Will Ireland do the same against Gibraltar?
On tonight’s results, Ireland can rightly take comfort in bagging 3 points they should have bagged anyway. What is clear tonight, after the three group matches, is that Poland, Germany and Scotland are head and shoulders above Ireland in this group. Sure, we will have the comfort of knowing the Irish players will know competively we can play Gibraltar and bag another 3 points without the difficulties of playing Georgia. But I assure you, we won’t even get close to Poland’s 7 goals. Expect another laboured 3-4 nil.
O’Neill made the mistake today of picking a team to beat a particular opponent, rather than going with what should have been his best team and letting them just get on with it.
how can you possibly say scotland in particular are head and shoulders above us ?
You obviously didn’t watch the Germany – Scotland game tonight, Mark. The manner in which Scotland didn’t try to play a poisession game against Germany, but regularly exposed their defence on counter-attacks.
This is about how you take what you have and apply it modern international football.
Are Northern Ireland better than the developing young Hungarian side, man for man? No. But they beat them 2-1 tonight. Are Albanian more talented than what Portugal have to offer? No. But they left Portugal 1-0 the better toinight.
You get to be head and shoulders above your opponets by being better as a unit, than a formula of parts. Scotland demonstrated that tonight. Strachan looked more like a manager with a drilled side set up to qualify for a tournament over 15 months than O’Neill looked tonight. O’Neill looked like he picked and set up a side after 300 days in charge to extract the most he could from one first match.
#2 keane isnt a front man. What a shock the whole counrty saying it for years????
No. Just no.
Georgia are not as bad as said. They frustrated us and yet we scored twice with a fairy average performance. I don’t think Germany played all that well tonight. I think we will get better as the group goes on. It was nice to score last min rather than lose one.
That’s the trouble. Georgia are a poor side. Yes, they will be no where as near bad as Gibraltar, or Faroe Islands or San Marino, but you can’t place a performance on a side that is set up to play ten men behind the ball, and frustrate the opposion. Nor can you judge a side from getting away with a 2-1 win in Georgia. Ireland will ultimately be tested when they play Poland and Scotland. We’ll know a great deal more about our realistic chances in this group by November. Carrying 6 points into encounters with Germany and Scotland may look well on paper, but these are the matches that will decide if with are good enough to be in the shake up in a years time.
Ward is not of international standard or any standard in fact. The luckiest millionaire in the premiership big time. Whelan isn’t up to it either. We just do not have enough quality in the team. Tell mark noble he is not required get a new CEO in the FAI and the Irish supporter should get along to LOI matches where the next Paul McGrath could well be discovered. Copy the Dutch and German leagues at grassroots level and get rid of john Delaney and his band of merry men in the FAI
How has nobody pointed out that Glenn Whelan was absolutely dreadful last night?
Good decision by Martin O’Neill to start Quinn. He has a great attitude and had some really nice touches.
Robbie can’t start the next game. Great goal scorer and all that but change is needed. Bring him on as a sub if we need a goal.