It will be the sound of the Italian slogan “Forza!”
Court No. 1 has become accustomed to chants of “Go for it!” from the stands this tournament. On Wednesday, No. 25 seed Lorenzo Musetti stunned No. 13 seed Taylor Fritz by beating him 3-6, 7-6 (7-5), 6-2, 3-6, 6-1 in the quarterfinals, making Musetti just the fourth Italian to reach the semifinals at Wimbledon, joining Nicola Piertrangeli in 1960, Matteo Berrettini in 2021 and current No. 1 Jannik Sinner last year.
He follows in the footsteps of those men and more recently compatriot Jasmine Paolini, the seventh seed who became the first Italian woman to reach the semifinals at Wimbledon when she beat American Emma Navarro in straight sets on Tuesday.
Thanks to Musetti and Paolini, this Wimbledon marks just the second time in history that an Italian man and woman have reached a Grand Slam semifinal — the first, of course, being last month’s French Open, when Paolini and Sinner did so.
Paolini will face tour veteran Donna Vekic, who is playing in her first Grand Slam semifinal Thursday in her 43rd Grand Slam appearance. Kazakhstan’s Elena Rybakina won her quarterfinal on Wednesday and will face Barbora Krejcikova of the Czech Republic in the other women’s semifinal on Thursday.
Musetti’s reward for winning was meeting tennis royalty, as he was presented with Queen Camilla, who walked out of the royal box at Centre Court and waved during the match.Novak Djokovic was given a walkover in Wednesday’s men’s singles quarterfinals after Australia’s Alex de Minaur withdrew from the match with a hip injury.
The difference in experience between the two is huge: the 22-year-old Musetti will be playing in his first Grand Slam semifinal, while the 37-year-old Djokovic will be tying Roger Federer’s record of 13 Wimbledon men’s singles semifinal appearances.
“He probably knows the court surface and the stadium better than I do,” Musetti said modestly with a smile.
Musetti has had plenty of time to study the grass over the past 10 days, but that may not necessarily be to his advantage. The win over Fritz was the Italian’s second five-set match in two weeks and he goes into Friday’s showdown having spent 15 hours, 53 minutes on court, while Djokovic will be in relative health.
The Serb spent 10 hours and 6 minutes on the court. Rest the knee that underwent surgery on June 5thHe also boasts a 5-1 record against Musetti, most recently coming from behind to beat him at Roland Garros after losing 2-1 in sets. This came three years after Djokovic came from behind to beat the Italian at Roland Garros after Musetti held a 2-0 set lead before retiring in the fifth set.
Musetti may be looking forward to facing Djokovic on grass sometime.
Fritz rarely intentionally left the baseline on Wednesday, but he was moving plenty.
Fritz, also fighting for his first Grand Slam semifinal, was riding high on a victory at the tournament on the grass in Eastbourne, England, as a warm-up for Wimbledon. He will be looking to avenge his close five-set quarterfinal loss to Rafael Nadal here in 2022 and said he was nervous in the opening set on Wednesday.
If he was nervous at the start of the match, it wasn’t obvious: the 26-year-old from California started strong, dominating points with his excellent serve and impressive groundstrokes.
Musetti deserves credit for trying some variation against Fritz: the Italian is one of the few players on tour with a one-handed backhand and has the ability to mix in slices, drop shots and shots that change the shape as well as the pace of the rallies.
In the first set, his touch wasn’t quite deft enough and he kept slamming the ball into the top of the net tape, but he kept doing it. Eventually, Fritz got frustrated.
“I think it’s worse, what can I say, when other players can’t hit the same shot every time,” Musetti said. “Especially when you’re a good baseline player like Taylor, if you play flat every time, you’re not going to win the point.”
Fritz said the wind was an issue on Court No. 1, making it difficult to play his power game against Mustetti’s wide variety of shot options. The American said earlier this week that the grass courts make it worth the risk of putting his top power into one groundstroke, because the bigger hits are rewarded more immediately.
But the conditions affecting his serve and the subtle changes in the ball from Musetti kept Fritz from finding his groove. Musetti didn’t need to play the cleanest game of his career; he just needed to keep Fritz confused.
“I felt like maybe the biggest thing when you’re playing against a guy like him is you have to be really precise with where you’re going to hit the shot and be able to set up and have power,” Fritz said. “You can’t hit the ball that hard with a dead slice, so you have to be really precise.”
Fritz will try to bounce back at the Paris Olympics starting later this month but said he is a bit worried because the injury he suffered at the French Open is affecting his slipping on clay more than his movements on grass.
He said he suffers from sports pubic pain, also known as a sports hernia, which often affects the groin and lower abdomen.
“It’s a lot easier on the grass because you don’t slip,” Fritz said. “It’s an injury that really bothers you when you slip and your foot takes a big break.”
Musetti, meanwhile, looks forward to facing Djokovic for the seventh time as a more mature, more experienced and more accomplished player than the last time they faced each other at Roland Garros. He called Wednesday’s win the best day of his career and credited it to all the lessons he learned from losing to a player like Djokovic in the past.
“Maybe the losses against all the big champions made me think and work harder,” Musetti said. “Today’s win is probably a result of that. I think I have a chance.” [Novak] Next round.”
