Wimbledon 2022: Rafael Nadal ekes out win over Taylor Fritz in epic match

Rafael Nadal and American Taylor Fritz were locked in an epic battle in the Wimbledon quarterfinal on Wednesday afternoon with the Spanish tennis legend grinding out the victory.

Fritz took the first game after initially going down 3-1. Nadal would take the second game 7-5. The two players would trade sets again before going into a tiebreak in the final set.

Nadal would get past Fritz in the fifth set 7-6, outpointing him in the tiebreaker 10-3.

It’s the furthest Fritz had ever gone in a Grand Slam singles event. He made the fourth round in the Australian Open in January.

The last American to make the quarterfinals at Wimbledon was John Isner in 2018. In that tournament, the ninth-seeded Isner beat Canadian Milos Raonic in four sets. He would lose to Kevin Anderson in his own five-set thriller, which saw them go tit-for-tat in the second-longest match in Wimbledon history. Anderson won the tiebreaker 26-24.

NICK KYRGIOS MAKES ‘LAST DANCE’ JOKE WHEN QUESTIONED ABOUT ASSAULT ALLEGATION

Nadal will head to the semifinals to play Australian Nick Kyrgios as he looks to win his third championship at Wimbledon.

He and Kyrgios played each other at the BNP Paribas Open in March. Kyrgios, an emotional tennis player, was criticized for his outburst after the match. He smashed his racquet and the debris nearly hit a ball boy.

“I think Nick had a great attitude during the whole match in terms of fighting spirit, and of course he has his personality, his character,” Nadal said at the time. “Sometimes he does things that I don’t like, but I respect because of different character, different kind of points of view, and different kind of education.”

Kyrgios has already been criticized and fined for outbursts during this year’s Wimbledon tournament.

The two will play each other Friday. The winner will play the winner of Novak Djokovic and Cam Norrie.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.