Taylor Fritz blew a hole in Alexander Zverev’s perfect serving record at this year’s Wimbledon by producing a storming comeback from two sets down to topple the German fourth seed with a 4-6 6-7(4) 6-4 7-6(3) 6-3 victory to reach the quarterfinals.
For two-and-a-half sets on Monday Zverev’s serve was impenetrable, as it had been during the championships as he notched up 56 successive holds over the course of four matches.
Zverev looked well set to reach the last eight of the grasscourt major for the first time as he led by two sets to love and was locked at 4-4 in the third.
But a double fault from Zverev handed Fritz an unexpected break in the next game and from then on the American’s performance caught fire.
He chased down everything the German could throw at him and produced some eye-popping diving winners in the fifth set to leave Zverev staring at defeat.
A backhand winner into an open court left Fritz raising his arm in triumph, while Zverev was left to digest yet another disappointing exit from Wimbledon.
The American 13th seed will next face Italian Lorenzo Musetti.
