Taylor Fritz is finally a grand slam semi-finalist the 26-year-old American who carried an zero to four quarterfinal record into this US Open finally broke through Tuesday with a 7 to6 3-6 6 to4 7 to6 victory over number four seed Alexander Zer in Arthur Ash Stadium Fritz the number 12 seed will face either fellow American Francis tifo or Gregor dimitrov in Friday semi-finals it has been 21 years since Andy rodic's US Open title marking the last time an American man won a grand slam singles title rodic was also the last American to make a final losing to Roger Federer at Wimbledon in 2009 Fritz has been the top ranked American for most of the last few years peing at number five early in 2003 a couple of his previous opportunities to break through at the Grand Slams ended in heartbreak including a fifth set tiebreak lost to Rafael Nadal at Wimbledon in 2022 in a five- set loss to Lorenzo Muti there earlier this year after he controlled the early portion of the match this time Fritz stayed solid and executed Under Pressure he won 81% of the points when he made a first serve only faced four break points in the match and played stayed mostly error-free in the two decisive tie breaks after the match Fritz said this match felt different than his previous quarterfinals from the very beginning all the other times I did it I was much happier to make the quarterfinals Fritz said on ESPN this time I felt like I've been there enough that I'm not even close to being happy with it anymore it just felt different