Lorenzo Musetti reaches his first Grand Slam semi-final at Wimbledon and will face Novak Djokovic

LONDON – Lorenzo Musetti reached his first Grand Slam semi-final by eliminating Taylor Fritz 3-6, 7-6 (5), 6-2, 3-6, 6-1 at Wimbledon on Wednesday and will face Novak Djokovic next.

Musetti, 25th placed, 22-year-old Italian, had never passed the third stage the All England Club – or the fourth round of any major tournament – ​​so far.

His victory over Fritz in 13th place was the 37th five-setter at the All England Club this year, the most in any Grand Slam tournament.

Musetti will now face Djokovic with a place in the final at stake.

It will be Djokovic’s record-tying 13th semi-final at Wimbledon alone – equaling Roger Federer – and 49th Slam semi-final overall, extending a mark he already held. As Musetti seeks his first major championship Djokovic seeks 25thincluding what would have been an eighth at the All England Club.

Djokovic’s smooth ride through this year’s bracket was made even easier when the man he was supposed to face in the quarterfinals on Wednesday Alex de Minaur withdrawn due to hip injury hours before the start of the match.

Playing on sunny Court No. 1 against Fritz, an American who is one of the sport’s greatest servers but fell to 0-4 in the major quarterfinals, Musetti managed to rack up 13 break points and convert six. The break that determined the result came with a forehand from Musetti that made it 2-0 in the last set; Moments later, another break made it 4-0.

Queen Camilla, wife of King Charles IIIwas in the stands and joined the fans to make the wave.

There wasn’t much variety displayed by either player; they were mostly content to trade groundstrokes from the baseline. But Musetti managed to rack up points with effective drop shots, occasionally following them up with successful pass attempts or lobs.

Djokovic underwent knee surgery less than a month before kick-off at the All England Club. But limitations on your movementthe 37 year old man Djokovic lost just two sets so far – facing a qualifier in the first round, a wildcard entrant in the second, and just one seeded player, #15 Holger Rune.

Instead of facing No. 9 Minaur on Wednesday, Djokovic will have three full days off before facing Musetti on Friday. The other men’s semi-final will see defending champion Carlos Alcaraz against Daniil Medvedev; they advanced on Tuesday.

Djokovic and Musetti have already faced each other six times. Djokovic won five of them, including a five-set match at this year’s French Open which ended after 3am. It was in Djokovic’s next match, in Paris, that he tore the meniscus in his right knee.

In the women’s quarterfinals Wednesday, 2022 champion Elena Rybakina grabbed nine of the last 11 games to defeat No. 21 Elina Svitolina 6-3, 6-2, and No. 31 Barbora Krejcikova eliminated No. 13 Jelena Ostapenko 6-4, 7-6 (4) in a match between two last champions at the French Open.

The other women’s semifinal on Thursday will see No. 7 seed Jasmine Paolini of Italy against unseeded Donna Vekic of Croatia.

Kazakhstan’s Rybakina capped off her victory with her seventh ace to improve to 19-2 at Wimbledon in four matches.

“I definitely have an aggressive style of play,” Rybakina said. “I have a huge booty, so it’s a big advantage.”

Her match lasted 1 hour and 1 minute – less than Krejcikova’s second set against Ostapenko, who at one point ordered her coach to leave the stands.

Krejcikova won her first Grand Slam title on red clay at Roland Garros in 2021but had never achieved a five-fight winning streak on grass until now.

“There have been a lot of doubts from within, but also from without – from the outside world,” said Krejcikova, a 28-year-old from the Czech Republic who arrived at the All England Club with a record of just 6-9 in 2024. “But I am super happy to have never given up and to be here now.”

De Minaur’s departure is the most recent because of injury in week 2 of the tournament. Players who stopped competing midway through fourth-round matches because they were injured include No. 10 Grigor Dimitrov in the men’s draw, and No. 12 Madison Keys and No. 17 Anna Kalinskaya in the women’s draw.

The problem for de Minaur, a 25-year-old Australian, arose towards the end of his four-set victory over Arthur Fils on Monday. De Minaur said he heard a pop and knew something was wrong.

He underwent medical tests on Tuesday which revealed the extent of the problem, but tried to train on Wednesday morning in the hope of being able to face Djokovic. This was de Minaur’s first time reaching the quarterfinals at Wimbledon.

“It’s no secret that, at this stage of my career, this was the most important game of my career. So I wanted to do everything I could to play,” de Minaur said. “I knew what the results were yesterday, but I still wanted to wake up today and feel some kind of miracle and not feel it while I’m walking.”

He was told his hip could get worse if he played on Wednesday.

“The problem with me going out and playing is that a stretch, a slip, anything, can take this injury (recovery) from three to six weeks to four months,” de Minaur said. “It’s a lot of risk.”

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