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It's a now or never for Taylor Fritz at Wimbledon
Taylor Fritz. Susan Mullane-Imagn Images

It's a now or never for Taylor Fritz at Wimbledon

On Friday, Taylor Fritz strives to be the first American since Andy Roddick in 2009 to reach the Wimbledon finals. 

Standing in his way is two-time defending champion Carlos Alcaraz, who is trying to become the fifth player in the Open Era to win three straight titles at SW19, and the second to win the Channel Slam two years in a row. 

Every metric — head-to-head record (Alcaraz 2-0), recent form (Alcaraz is on a 23-match winning streak) and big match experience — favors the Spaniard. 

That said, Fritz plays his best tennis on grass, a surface where he's won five of his 10 career titles, two of which — Eastbourne and Stuttgart — he claimed in the lead-up to this year's Wimbledon. That's why his deep run at the hallowed grass courts isn't surprising, considering he entered the most ATP events during this year's grass-court swing. 

Fritz was better prepared than most of his top-ranked peers entering Wimbledon, and he knew he couldn't afford any shortcuts after last year's heartbreaking loss to Lorenzo Musetti in the quarterfinals when he was close to going up two sets in a hurry before losing in five. 

"I'm really happy with how I've turned my career around," Fritz said after beating Karen Khachanov to become the first American in seven years (Josh Isner) to reach the Wimbledon final four.

So, what are the keys for Fritz to upset the mighty Alcaraz?

It starts and ends with his service game. Through 10 days of action at The Championships, he is second on the men's leaderboard with 95 aces, 33 more than Alcaraz's 62.  

"Fritz's game is very straightforward: he needs to serve well and rock the forehand when he can," Jim Courier told Tennis Channel. "He needs to change direction with the backhand down the line to keep Carlos at bay. You don't want Carlos pouncing on you and getting to the net, and using all his creativity. You've got to suppress that with firepower."

To Courier's point, Alcaraz excels on grass due to his ability to attack the net and avoid prolonged volleys. His defense doubles as his offense — he has landed 71 percent of his returns successfully through the first five rounds, including seven outright winners. He has won 31 percent of his return games, compared to Fritz's 20 percent. The American's return game isn't anything to sneeze at, but he'll be at an instant disadvantage if he doesn't hold serve consistently. 

Lindsay Davenport believes Fritz's only hope is to use the pace and bounce of the grass to his advantage.

"He has the chance to go right through Alcaraz because of the speed of the grass, but he has to play a near-perfect match," she said. 

For the 27-year-old Fritz, this may be a "now or never" scenario, given the number of talented youngsters coming through the Tour. There are excellent odds that the likes of Jack Draper, Jakub Mensik and Joao Fonseca will be making deep runs at slams in the coming years.

No American man has won Wimbledon since Pete Sampras in 2000.

Sai Mohan

A veteran sportswriter based in Portugal, Sai covers the NBA for Yardbarker and a few local news outlets. He had the honor of covering sporting events across four different continents as a newspaper reporter. Some of his all-time favorite athletes include Mike Tyson, Larry Bird, Luís Figo, Ayrton Senna and Steffi Graf.

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