London: If Taylor Fritz is growing his grass court game, a Wimbledon show court is just the place to put it on display, which is exactly what the 6’ 5’’ American has been doing this past week.The fifth seed couldn’t claim his 12th Tour-leading match win on grass this season in the manner he’d have wanted to, given that his opponent Jordan Thompson came into the fourth-round match, a tad battered. The Aussie was forced to retire with an apparent right thigh injury after just 10 games. The 31-year-old, playing with a heavy strapping, threw in the towel with the score reading 1-6, 0-3.Fritz fittingly is back in the last eight at SW19 for a third time in four years. The American, who arrived in this leafy London suburb off the back of a record fourth Eastbourne title last week, was pushed to the limit in his opening two matches. The 27-yearold Californian rallied from the brink to defeat Giovanni Mpetshi Perricard in five sets in the first round and then went the distance against Gabriel Diallo in round two. In the third round he put out Alejandro Davidovich Fokina in four sets, totalling nine hours and 43 minutes on court through his first three matches.
Fritz, who has won five Tourlevel titles on grass – the secondhighest total among active male players behind Novak Djokovic, who has won eight – had his first breakthrough on the surface in the juniors, making the semi-finals of the 2014 Junior Wimbledon. “I feel like a lot of parts of my game translates well (on grass),” Fritz said. “I’ve experimented with different things on grass like returning, chipping, slicing, sometimes chipping and coming in on a low ball. I’m trying not to change my game too much, but I’ve made little tweaks that have helped me.”Fritz will look to go a step further than he has at Wimbledon when he plays the 17th seed Karen Khachanov in the last eight on Tuesday in what will be a clash of big servers. They’ve served a total of 121 aces in the tournament.Meanwhile, Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova put out Briton’s Sonay Kartal 7-6 (3), 6-4 in a match that became the talking point because the automated line-calling technology on Centre Court malfunctioned, failing to call Kartal’s shot long. The point had to be replayed, costing the Russian a game in the first set. Pavlyuchenkova was at game point at 4-4.World No.1 Aryna Sabalenka overcame the challenge of Belgian Elise Mertens, coming through 6-4, 7-6 (4).
