That would be the Italian rallying cry: “Forza!”
Court No. 1 “Forza!” Have been addicted to your fair share of! He was booed from the stands at this tournament, as it was Wednesday when No. 25 seed Lorenzo Musetti defeated No. 13 seed Taylor Fritz, 3-6, 7-6 (7-5), 6-2, 3-6, 6. Startled by. The -1 win in the quarterfinals makes him the fourth Italian man to reach the semifinals at Wimbledon after Nicola Pietrangeli in 1960, Matteo Berrettini in 2021 and current No. 1 Jannik Sinner last year.
She follows those men and, most recently, her countryman seventh-seeded Jasmine Paolini, who beat American Emma Navarro in straight sets on Tuesday to become the first Italian woman to make a Wimbledon semi-final.
Musetti and Paolini made it together, so this Wimbledon is the second time an Italian man and woman have reached the semi-finals of a Grand Slam – the first time, of course, being when Paolini and Sinner did so at the previous French Open. month.
Paolini advances to face Tour veteran Donna Vekic, who will play her first Grand Slam semi-final on Thursday in her 43rd major appearance. After winning the quarter-finals on Wednesday, Kazakhstan’s Elena Rybakina will face Czech’s Barbora Krejcikova in the other women’s semi-final on Thursday.
Musetti’s reward after his victory – which was played in front of Queen Camilla, who walked from the Royal Box on Center Court and joined in the wave at one point during the match – is a meeting with tennis royalty. Novak Djokovic got a walkover into the second men’s quarter-final on Wednesday when Australia’s Alex de Minaur withdrew before the match with a hip injury.
The experience gap between the two men is huge: the 22-year-old Musetti will contest the first Grand Slam semi-final of his career. Djokovic, 37, will equal Roger Federer’s record 13 appearances in the men’s singles semi-finals at Wimbledon.
“He definitely knows the surface and the stadium better than me,” Musetti said with a smile.
Musetti has had plenty of time to study grass over the past 10 days, though it may not have been positive. The Italian’s win over Fritz was his second five-set match of the tournament, and he is entering Friday’s duel after spending 15 hours and 53 minutes on the court, while Djokovic will be comparatively fresh.
The Serb has spent 10 hours and 6 minutes on court and will get an extra day to rest the knee, which was surgically repaired on June 5. He also has a 5-1 career record against Musetti and recently came back to defeat the youngster. Djokovic bounced back to defeat Musetti three years later – after falling two sets-to-one to him at the French Open – after the Italian blew a two-sets-to-one lead at Roland Garros and retired in the fifth set .
Musetti may actually be keen to play Djokovic on grass for a change.
He was moving quite well on Wednesday in a battle in which Fritz rarely left the baseline intentionally.
Fritz was also competing for his first Grand Slam semifinal berth, and was the hottest player heading into Wimbledon after winning the title in a warmup tournament on grass in Eastbourne, England. He was trying to erase the sting of a quarterfinal defeat here in 2022, when he lost a tight five-set marathon against Rafael Nadal, and said he was nervous in the opening set on Wednesday.
If he was nervous about getting started, it wasn’t obvious. The 26-year-old from California started strongly, scoring points with excellent serving and groundstrokes.
Musetti was trying to make some changes to his game against Fritz. The Italian is one of the rare players on tour who uses a one-handed backhand, and he is able to mix in slices and dropshots and shots that change not only the tempo, but also the shape of the rally.
His touch was not efficient enough in the first set and he kept sending the ball into the net tape, but he kept it up. Ultimately, this frustrated Fritz.
“That’s probably something I say I felt more about, how can I say it that it’s worse for other people to not have every shot be the same,” Musetti said. “Especially with a good baseliner like Taylor, if you play flat every time, I can’t win a point.”
Fritz said he was troubled by the wind on Court No. 1 and was having difficulty playing his power game against Musetti’s diverse shot selection. The American said earlier this week that he prefers grass because it rewards big hits immediately, making it worth the risk of unloading maximum power in a single groundstroke.
But between the circumstances affecting his serve and the subtle variations of the ball he was receiving from Musetti, Fritz could not find his rhythm. Musetti didn’t have to play the cleanest match of his career. He just needed to keep Fritz guessing.
Fritz said, “I felt like probably the biggest thing is that when I’m playing with someone who plays like he does, I really need to be able to set up and generate power, like To really pinpoint where I want to hit the shot.” , “I have to be very accurate because you won’t be able to hit the ball as hard with a dead slice.”
Fritz will try to regroup at the Paris Olympics starting later this month, but said he is a little worried about the injury he suffered at the French Open, which affects him more when sliding on clay than on grass. Is.
He said he has athletic pubalgia, also known as a sports hernia, which usually occurs in the groin or lower abdomen.
“It was much better because I’m not slipping on the grass,” Fritz said. “It’s an injury that really bothers me when I’m slipping, causing my legs to slide apart.”
As for Musetti, he is hoping to approach his seventh meeting with Djokovic as a more mature, more experienced and more skilled player than the last time they faced each other at the French Open. He described Wednesday’s win as the best day of his career, crediting it for the lessons he learned from losing to players like Djokovic in the past.
“Maybe losing with all the big champions made me think, made me work harder,” Musetti said. “Today’s victory is probably the result. I think I might get a chance with (Novak) in the next round.
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