Lorenzo Musetti beats Taylor Fritz, will face Novak Djokovic at Wimbledon

On Jul 10, 2024

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WIMBLEDON, England — There is a sound commonly heard this year at Wimbledon, en vogue amid the hushed murmurs and encouraging shouts of “Come on!” and polite applause and sometimes even rowdy applause. It returned again at the start of the fortnight, made it all the way to Day 10 and will stick around for two more days, at least. The sound is far from unfamiliar at the All England Club, but it hasn’t been heard this often, for this long, in some time.

That would be the sound of an Italian rallying cry: “Forza!”

Court No. 1 has grown accustomed to its fair share of “Forza!” being hurled from the stands this tournament, as it was Wednesday when No. 25 seed Lorenzo Musetti surprised No. 13 seed Taylor Fritz with a 3-6, 7-6 (7-5), 6-2, 3-6, 6-1 triumph in the quarterfinals that makes him just the fourth Italian man to reach the semifinals at Wimbledon, after Nicola Pietrangeli in 1960, Matteo Berrettini in 2021 and current No. 1 Jannik Sinner last year.

He follows those men and, more recently, his countrywoman Jasmine Paolini, the seventh seed here who on Tuesday defeated American Emma Navarro in straight sets to become the first Italian woman to make a Wimbledon semifinal.

Together, Musetti and Paolini made it so this Wimbledon is just the second time in which an Italian man and woman have reached the semifinals of a Grand Slam — the first time being when Paolini and Sinner did so at the French Open last month.

Paolini advanced to face Donna Vekic, who will play her first Grand Slam semifinal Thursday in her 43rd major appearance. Elena Rybakina of Kazakhstan will face Barbora Krejcikova of the Czech Republic in the other women’s semifinal Thursday following quarterfinal wins Wednesday.

Musetti’s prize after his triumph — which played out in front of Queen Camilla, who walked over from the Royal Box on Centre Court and joined in the wave at one point during the match — is a meeting with tennis royalty. Novak Djokovic earned a walkover in the other men’s quarterfinal Wednesday when Alex de Minaur of Australia withdrew with a hip injury.

The gulf of experience between the two men is wide: Musetti, 22, will contest the first Grand Slam semifinal of his career. Djokovic, 37, will match Roger Federer’s record number of appearances in the men’s singles semifinals at Wimbledon with his 13th.

“He probably knows better than me the surface and the stadium, for sure,” Musetti said, delivering the understatement with a smile.

Musetti has had plenty of time to study the grass over the past 10 days, though that may not be a positive. The Italian’s win over Fritz was his second five-set match of the tournament, and he enters Friday’s duel having spent 15 hours 53 minutes on court, while Djokovic will be comparatively fresh.

The Serb has spent a snappy 10 hours 6 minutes on court and will have had an extra day to rest the knee that was surgically repaired June 5. He also owns a 5-1 career record against Musetti and most recently came back to beat the youngster after trailing him two sets to one at the French Open — three years after Djokovic came back to defeat Musetti after the Italian held a two-sets-to-none lead and…