In his third Wimbledon quarterfinal, Taylor Fritz felt calmer.
This is a stage of a Grand Slam tournament where the American star feels increasingly comfortable, especially after reaching his first major final less than a year ago at the US Open.
That, plus his terrific form on grass in 2025, helped explain what unfolded against Karen Khachanov on No.1 Court at the All England Club.
"I thought the first two sets, the level was as good as it gets for me,” said Fritz, who eventually won 6-3 6-4 1-6 7-6(4) to advance to his first Wimbledon semifinal.
"[Reaching the US Open final has] given me a lot of confidence in those moments and situations, just having been there, that I can do it again.
“I feel like other years that I was in the quarterfinals here specifically, it felt like a really big deal for me.
“Going into the match today, I was much more calm and relaxed. It didn't feel like that, just having the experience of making some deep runs in some Slams over the last couple of years.”
Fritz’s match-up with 17th seed Khachanov marked his sixth Grand Slam quarterfinal – half of which have come at SW19.
In 2022 he was unable to overcome Rafael Nadal, who defied an abdominal injury and prevailed in five sets before withdrawing from the tournament. Last year Fritz also made it to a fifth set, before falling to Lorenzo Musetti.
He very nearly didn’t make it to the same point this year, given the perilous position he was in against Giovanni Mpetshi Perricard in round one.
The towering Frenchman, a monstrous server, led by two sets to love, and by 5-1 in the fourth-set tiebreak, before Fritz staged an incredible comeback.
He’s been building momentum ever since.
“I've just been really proud with how I've been mentally all week,” said Fritz, now on a nine-match winning streak.
“I was about as close to being out of the tournament in the first round as you can be. I was very close in the second round. I knew my draw was absolutely brutal from when I first saw it when I was still in Eastbourne.
“I'm just happy with how I mentally got through these matches and have gone through the tournament and how I've just kind of handled also the draw opening up in a way, just taking it one match at a time and staying in the moment.”
Speaking of Eastbourne, that was the grasscourt tournament Fritz won in the week before the Wimbledon main draw – his fourth trophy on the English south coast.
This was his second grasscourt title of the season after his triumph in Stuttgart two weeks before that.
He’s now a perfect 5-0 in grasscourt finals and by reaching the Wimbledon semifinals he is the first American since the ATP Tour was formed in 1990 to reach three grasscourt semifinals in the same season.
He enters his next match against Carlos Alcaraz with a 13-1 record on grass in 2025, the most wins any player has achieved on the surface in a season since Gilles Muller almost 10 years ago.
“I would say [grass is my best surface],” Fritz said. “I've made obviously a semifinal now, two other quarterfinals at Wimbledon.
“I think it speaks a lot that half of my titles are on grass, given that grass is such a short part of the year compared to everything else.”
For all of Fritz’s grasscourt credentials, he confronts an opponent who is shaping as an all-time great on the surface.
Alcaraz is the two-time defending Wimbledon champion and reigning Queen’s champion on a 17-match grasscourt winning streak, and this fortnight has achieved the best winning percentage on grass of any man in the Open era.
In the quarterfinals, Alcaraz overwhelmed Cameron Norrie in 99 minutes, losing just eight games.
Fritz trails 0-2 in the head-to-head against Alcaraz, but this was the same head-to-head he faced against Khachanov before turning that around on Tuesday.
“I really do think I'm a much better tennis player than I was a year ago or even two years ago,” said Fritz, the tournament’s fifth seed. “I think right now I'm playing at a much higher level in tennis than I was.
"I think grass is very much so an equaliser. It can be an equaliser. So trust in how I'm playing.
“I truly know the way that I played the first two sets today, there's not much any opponent on the other side can do.”