American Taylor Fritz moved into the Wimbledon quarterfinals for the third time in four years on Sunday, advancing when his injured opponent, Jordan Thompson, retired while trailing 6-1, 3-0 after 41 minutes.
With Fritz advancing, it’s the fifth consecutive major in which at least one American man has made the quarterfinals — the longest streak for the U.S. men since a run of six straight from the 2002 US Open to 2004 Australian Open.
The unseeded Thompson’s movement and power were clearly compromised. The Australian entered the match with back and leg issues and left the court for a medical timeout in the second set Sunday, then stopped after trying to play for three more points.
Thompson has had a couple of retirements at majors before, most recently the 2023 US Open against Botic Van De Zandschulp because of a leg injury. He was also forced to exit his 2021 Australian Open match against Casper Ruud with a shoulder injury.
“It’s obviously not the way that I want to go through,” the No. 5-seeded Fritz said. “It’s just sad. … Respect to him for coming out. His body’s not right.”
For Fritz, it was a shorter workday after playing a pair of five-setters and one four-setter earlier in the tournament.
Fritz and Ben Shelton, who advanced to the round of 16 with his straight-sets win Saturday, are the only Americans remaining in the men’s singles draw. Looking ahead, only two American men in the past 15 years have reached the Wimbledon semifinals: Sam Querrey in 2017 and John Isner in 2018.
Fritz next faces Russian 17th seed Karen Khachanov, who reached his second Wimbledon quarterfinal by beating Kamil Majchrzak 6-4, 6-2, 6-3 earlier Sunday.
“To be honest, today was a really great performance — at least from my side,” said Khachanov, who finished with more than twice as many winners as unforced errors (44-21).
Khachanov has been a Grand Slam semifinalist twice, at the US Open in 2022 and the Australian Open in 2023. He was a quarterfinalist at the All England Club four years ago.
The 109th-ranked Majchrzak was playing in a fourth-round match at a major for the first time. He was on a six-match Grand Slam losing streak before Wimbledon.
Fritz, the US Open runner-up last year, is 12-1 on grass this season, having won titles at Stuttgart and Eastbourne. His 12 tour-level grass match wins are the most by any American man in a season since Pete Sampras won 12 in 1999 at Queen’s Club and Wimbledon.
Other men’s matches scheduled for later Sunday were two-time defending champion Carlos Alcaraz vs. No. 14 Andrey Rublev, and Nicolas Jarry vs. Cam Norrie.
ESPN Research and The Associated Press contributed to this report.
