AMERICAN Taylor Fritz is through to the quarter finals of Wimbledon after an enormous come from behind five-set win over a hampered Alexander Zverev in a three and a half hour thriller overnight. The 13th seed trailed two sets to love against the fourth seed German, but found a way to take full advantage and ran away with a 4-6 6-7 6-4 7-6 6-3 victory.

Zverev’s knee was a known question mark coming into the match, having had it strapped after his fall against Cameron Norrie in the third round. Lucky the strong serving German was able to take control thanks to that serve, not needing to move as much around the court early days as he broke his opponent and then served out a second set tiebreaker to race to a 2-0 lead.

But as the match went on, Fritz started to mix it right up, opting for more varied plays and drop shots, while Zverev began tiring due to his knee on grass and the American seized control. He would finally break the German, the first time Zverev had dropped a service game at Wimbledon this year after 56 consecutive holds.

From there, Fritz was able to run out the match stronger and never let Zverev feel comfortable in his knee, allowing the American to advance through to the next stage after an epic comeback.

“It was amazing to do that on Centre Court from two sets down in front of this crowd – it’s just a dream,” Fritz said post-match.

“I felt like I was still playing really well for being down two sets. I was thinking: it sucked to be playing this well and just lose in three straight so let’s take the third. And I took it one at a time.

“I had that belief even though I lost the first two sets. I really felt like I was playing really good tennis and I felt like it was just a couple of points here and there. I felt like I could just take it one set at a time and just turn it around.”

Zverev serve 19 aces to Fritz’s 15 aces, but the American also produced an elite 69 winners to just 23 unforced errors, while his opponent hit 55 winners to 33 unforced errors, not able to break Fritz after the first set.

AROUND THE COURTS

Fritz will face Italian Lorenzo Musetti in the quarter finals after he came from a set down to end the run of towering lucky loser Frenchman, Giovanni Mpetshi Perricard. Musetti won 4-6 6-3 6-3 6-2 in two hours and three minutes, as his opponent was limited to just 10 aces and was unable to replicate his serving form from the first three rounds at Wimbledon.

In the other matches, Alex de Minaur also needed four sets to overcome a Frenchman in Arthur Fils, winning 6-2 6-4 4-6 6-3 in two hours and 54 minutes. He surprisingly hit less winners (23-24) but had way less unforced errors (41-66) and broke the unpredictable Fils nine times to five to reach the last eight.

There, de Minaur will take on world number two Novak Djokovic who is gunning for his record-equalling eighth Wimbledon title after the Serbian made light work of Danish 15 seed Holger Rune. Djokovic won 6-4 6-4 6-2 in two hours and three minutes, hitting 21 winners to 22 unforced errors, compared to Rune’s 15 and 29 respectively.