By Chris Oddo | @TheFanChild | Tuesday September 2, 2025
New York — Novak Djokovic continues to be setting information at 38. On Tuesday evening inside Arthur Ashe Stadium, the highest seed battled previous Taylor Fritz 6-3, 7-5, 3-6, 6-4 to achieve his 53rd Grand Slam semifinal — greater than any man or lady in tennis historical past.
“It’s a type of days the place you simply need to grind, . You simply need to play along with your coronary heart and battle. That’s what actually gave me the win ultimately,” Djokovic mentioned after the match.
The win improves Djokovic’s lifetime file in opposition to Fritz to a flawless 11-0 and ties him with Jimmy Connors for many US Open semifinal appearances with 14. But it surely wasn’t all clean crusing for the 24-time main champion.
Fritz had alternatives — so a lot of them — however faltered when it mattered most. The American didn’t convert on his first ten break level alternatives and, even after lastly cracking via for his first break of the evening late within the second set, he instantly surrendered serve again to Djokovic, through double-fault. The possibility to stage the match slipped away, and Djokovic pounced to take a commanding two-set lead.
“To be sincere, the very fact I used to be 0 for 10, that truly virtually sounds higher for me than it actually was, as a result of that’s not counting what number of occasions I had 15-30, Love-30, 30-All,” Fritz mentioned after the match. “The truth that I used to be 0-10, that’s placing it properly.”
The 27-year-old did claw again to take the third set and preserve his hopes alive, however ultimately nerves haunted him once more. Serving at 4-5 within the fourth, Fritz saved two match factors, solely to double fault on the third, handing Djokovic the victory after three hours and 24 minutes.
“On the finish of the day, that’s one of many issues that makes the nice gamers nice,” Fritz mirrored. “They win the massive factors, and that’s one thing that I sort of touched on earlier than the match is that I’m going to want to exit and take these factors from him. He’s not simply going handy them over to me. That’s precisely what occurred. Quite a lot of my weapons, aggressive pictures have been simply not there, letting me down. So I felt prefer it was powerful for me to exit and take these factors.”
For Djokovic, the win units up a blockbuster semifinal in opposition to Carlos Alcaraz, who swept previous Jiri Lehecka earlier on Tuesday. Djokovic has received his final two conferences with the Spaniard and holds a 5-3 edge of their head-to-head, however Alcaraz has appeared ruthless in New York, holding serve in 99 p.c of his video games throughout 5 matches with out dropping a set.
At 38, Djokovic appeared susceptible at occasions in opposition to Fritz, and he’ll welcome the luxurious of two full days of relaxation earlier than Friday’s semifinal showdown.
“I don’t really feel very recent in the meanwhile, however hopefully in two days it will likely be completely different,” he mentioned. “Right here we’re. I’ve one other likelihood, one other shot. Hopefully, as I mentioned, I may be match sufficient and play properly sufficient to maintain up with Carlos. Then it may be anyone’s match.”
