{"id":752469,"date":"2026-07-09T11:44:14","date_gmt":"2026-07-09T11:44:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/752469\/"},"modified":"2026-07-09T11:44:14","modified_gmt":"2026-07-09T11:44:14","slug":"zverevs-serve-blitzes-fritz-to-set-up-semi-final-with-british-revelation-fery-wimbledon-2026","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/752469\/","title":{"rendered":"Zverev\u2019s serve blitzes Fritz to set up semi-final with British revelation Fery | Wimbledon 2026"},"content":{"rendered":"

It is quite the sound when a tennis ball is pulverised by Alexander Zverev<\/a> as he serves. There is the crack of racket on ball. The gasps from the crowd. And then the oohs after they glance at the speed gun.<\/p>\n

And Taylor Fritz, who had a better view of Zverev\u2019s howitzers than anyone else at Wimbledon<\/a> on Wednesday, reckons his serve will prove too hot to handle for Arthur Fery in the semi\u2011final on Friday and possibly anyone else left in the men\u2019s draw.<\/p>\n

\u201cZverev is going to be incredibly tough to beat with how well he\u2019s serving,\u201d Fritz said after losing 6-4, 6-4, 6-2 against the German in just under two hours. \u201cThat\u2019s not something that I feel really changes from day to day with him. I feel like you can kind of expect that he\u2019s going to show up and serve at least 70% first serves, bombs. He\u2019s playing with a lot of confidence.\u201d<\/p>\n

There were certainly plenty of bombs on No 1 Court. Zverev\u2019s first serve averaged 131.7mph and his second 115mph. The stats show that no one at Wimbledon this year has served harder. Incredibly, despite his obvious power, the German had never got beyond the last 16 at Wimbledon until this year. But he is eagerly awaiting his match against Fery \u2013 even though he knows that 15,000 people on Centre Court will be willing him to lose.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve been on tour for long enough,\u201d he said. \u201cI feel like I\u2019ve seen the most hostile crowds, I\u2019ve seen tough crowds, I\u2019ve seen unfair crowds as well. I feel like I should know how to handle it, I\u2019ve learned how to handle it. I\u2019m OK with it.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think it\u2019s going to be a great atmosphere. Of course, I know that 99% of the people will be cheering for him. But I also enjoy those kind of atmospheres. I enjoy it when the energy is very high. I always feel like the English crowd here, especially in London, they\u2019re always quite fair. So I just look forward to a tough challenge in the semi-finals of a slam.\u201d<\/p>\n

Taylor Fritz struggled with a knee injury throughout his quarter-final with Alexander Zverev. Photograph: Andrew Matthews\/PA<\/p>\n

While Zverev, the No 2 seed, will be the overwhelming favourite, he insists he will not be taking Fery lightly. \u201cThe first time I watched him play was actually in Australia,\u201d he said. \u201cHe beat [Flavio] Cobolli in the first round. I was very impressed back then already. He has a very clean technique and very clean ground strokes. I thought he was a very good tennis player already, back then.<\/p>\n

\u201cOf course, it\u2019s maybe a surprise that he\u2019s in the semi-finals. But I think he deserves it. The wins that he had, the way he fought back<\/a> in a couple of those matches, is great to see. It\u2019s a great story.<\/p>\n

\u201cLast year at this time I was practising on the hard courts already. It is a dream come true to finally play well at Wimbledon. I\u2019ve waited a long time for it.\u201d<\/p>\n

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What made Zverev\u2019s convincing victory against Fritz all the more remarkable was that his opponent had actually beaten him in their past seven matches. However, there was a caveat as the tendinitis in Fritz\u2019s right knee flared up after three games and he needed treatment. Yet the American graciously admitted that he would have struggled to deal with Zverev in this form, even at his best.<\/p>\n

\u201cI felt like, just because I was thinking about the knee, my focus was kind of all over the place,\u201d he said. \u201cBut he was very aggressive with his forehand and his backhand as well. Very aggressive. Hit the ball great. He played really well and did a lot of things that are big improvements to his game.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s changing direction a lot with the backhand. He\u2019s serving such a high percentage, good spots. Really pulling the trigger with the forehand.\u201d Fery has been put on notice. And so, you have to believe, have Jannik Sinner and Novak Djokovic.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"It is quite the sound when a tennis ball is pulverised by Alexander Zverev as he serves. There…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":752470,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[72],"tags":[99,428],"class_list":["post-752469","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tennis","tag-sports","tag-tennis"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/752469","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=752469"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/752469\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/752470"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=752469"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=752469"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=752469"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}