Fritz reaches Wimbledon quarterfinals after Thompson retires

American Taylor Fritz progressed to the Wimbledon quarterfinals Sunday for a second consecutive year after Jordan Thompson retired due to injury with the No. 5 seed leading 6-1, 3-0.

With Fritz advancing, it’s the fifth consecutive major that at least one American man has made the quarterfinals — the longest streak for the U.S. men since a run of six straight from the 2002 US Open to 2004 Australian Open.

“Not the way I wanted to go through, I was excited to play Jordan today, I was excited to play good tennis,” Fritz said. “It’s sad … he’s been battling out here, playing five-setters, I respect him for coming out … I feel bad for him and I hope he gets better.”

Fritz and Ben Shelton, who advanced to the round of 16 with his straight-sets win Saturday, are the only Americans remaining in the men’s singles draw. Looking ahead, only two American men in the past 15 years have reached the Wimbledon semifinals: Sam Querrey in 2017 and John Isner in 2018.

Fritz, the US Open runner-up last year, will face No. 17 seed Karen Khachanov in the quarterfinals.

Khachanov, from Russia, reached his second Wimbledon quarterfinal by beating Kamil Majchrzak 6-4, 6-2, 6-3.

“To be honest, today was a really great performance — at least from my side,” said Khachanov, who finished with more than twice as many winners as unforced errors, 44-21.

Khachanov has been a Grand Slam semifinalist twice, at the U.S. Open in 2022 and the Australian Open in 2023. He was a quarterfinalist at the All England Club four years ago.

The 109th-ranked Majchrzak was playing in a fourth-round match at a major for the first time. He was on a six-match Grand Slam losing streak before Wimbledon.

Other men’s matches later were two-time defending champion Carlos Alcaraz vs. No. 14 Andrey Rublev, and Nicolas Jarry vs. Cam Norrie.

ESPN Research and The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Source: espn.com

Andrey RublevBen SheltonCarlos AlcarazEnglandWimbledon