Taylor Fritz moved into the Wimbledon quarterfinals for the third time in four years on Sunday, though not in the fashion he would have preferred. The No. 5 seed advanced after Australian Jordan Thompson was forced to retire due to injury, trailing 6-1, 3-0 after just 41 minutes of play.Thompson, who entered the match carrying back and leg issues, took a medical timeout early in the second set but was unable to continue after a brief attempt to play through the pain. “Just played a lot of tennis on a body that shouldn’t have been, and it just took its toll,” the unseeded Australian said after the match.Fritz, who had battled through multiple five-setters earlier in the tournament, acknowledged the unfortunate circumstances: “It’s obviously not the way I want to go through. It’s just sad… Respect to him for coming out. His body’s not right.”
The American will next face No. 17 seed Karen Khachanov, who defeated Poland’s Kamil Majchrzak 6-4, 6-2, 6-3. While Khachanov holds a 2-0 record over Fritz, their last meeting was back in 2020. “We practice all the time, so we’re pretty familiar with each other’s games,” Fritz said. “But I think I’ve improved a ton since then.”In a five-set thriller, Cam Norrie got the better of Nicolas Jarry.In the women’s draw, top seed Aryna Sabalenka booked her 11th straight Grand Slam quarterfinal, beating No. 24 Elise Mertens 6-4, 7-6(4). She’ll face veteran Laura Siegemund, who followed her win over Madison Keys by defeating lucky loser Solana Sierra 6-3, 6-2. The 37-year-old drew cheers from the crowd when her age was mentioned, joking, “It’s not that often you get such a compliment for being old.”Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova also returned to the Wimbledon quarterfinals for the first time in nine years, beating Britain’s Sonay Kartal 7-6(3), 6-4 despite a controversial missed call after a system outage.
