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The 24-year-old Southern California native, who is seeded 20th
in the tournament, topped Serbia's Miomir Kecmanovic 7-6 (5),
3-6, 6-1 on Friday.
"I'm so happy. I knew I was going to be dealing with a lot of
nerves today, obviously," Fritz said. "This was a huge match."
Fritz's semifinal opponent will be seventh-seeded Russian Andrey
Rublev, who handled Bulgaria's Grigor Dimitrov 7-5, 6-2.
Fritz is looking for a second career tournament title, with his
lone championship having come in 2019 at Eastbourne, England. He
served effectively Friday for most of the match, losing his
serve just once, when he had three double faults in a game late
in the second set.
"I literally don't really even know what happened," Fritz said.
"I hope nobody saw that."
Kecmanovic served out the set in the next game but couldn't
maintain the momentum, as Fritz won the first five games of the
third set.
Fritz said, "I kind of forgot how to play tennis there in the
second set. I'm really proud of the fact that I did that and
then kind of just mentally pulled myself together and
regrouped."
Rublev also controlled his match with his serve, winning 81
percent of his first-serve points and getting broken just once.
The victory was the 13th in a row for Rublev, who is coming off
championship runs in Marseille, France, and Dubai, United Arab
Emirates.
"I knew I had to serve well because of the way he plays from the
baseline, the way he moves, the way he plays with the forehand,"
Rublev said. "It was going to be really tough if I played a bit
passive.
"I had to be aggressive because I knew it would come down to who
would be the first one to start to dictate play."
The other semifinal match on Saturday will feature two
Spaniards, fourth-seeded Rafael Nadal against 19th-seeded Carlos
Alcaraz.
--Field Level Media
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