Two previous quarter-final defeats at Wimbledon, both in five sets, had left their scars. Taylor Fritz was determined not to let that happen again. 

Even so, he very nearly let his showdown with Karen Khachanov slip away from him, going from being in total control of events to total disarray and confusion in a matter of moments, before getting back on track to win 6-3, 6-4, 1-6, 7-6(4). The relief was palpable.

“I’m feeling great to get through it,” he said. “I feel like the match was going so well for me for two sets. I’ve never had a match just flip so quickly. So I’m really happy with how I came back in the fourth set and got it done. Momentum was definitely not going to be on my side going into a fifth.

“Before I felt like I couldn’t miss and then I’m making a ton of mistakes, he’s putting a lot of balls in play so I really just had to fight to get that break back in the fourth and just get the match back to neutral.”

Trying to separate these two before a ball had been struck was proving difficult. They are of the same generation (Fritz is 27; Khachanov is 29), they are an inch apart in height (Fritz is the shorter at 6ft 5in), they have similar Grand Slam records (Khachanov had won 11 more matches at the majors than his rival), they were both hoping to reach their first Wimbledon semi-final and they both had big serves and a preference for playing from the baseline. Hard to pick a favourite there.

What on earth was going to make the difference between the two? If the stats and data were anything to go by, the pair would give Nicolas Mahut and John Isner a run for their money. Call 11 hours and five minutes a long match? Pah.

And then Fritz started to play. True, he does much the same as Khachanov but he does it just that little bit better. He opened his account with a clean-hitting service hold (one ace) and then backed it up with a clean-hitting return game (break secured).  By the time Khachanov had got all the elements of his game firing, the first set was beyond his reach.

Fritz’s return had been honed to perfection in the first couple of rounds. In his opening match, Giovanni Mpetshi Perricard had leathered one serve at a Wimbledon record of 153mph. And Fritz won the point. In the second round, he took on Diallo – another 6ft 8in man with a serve that can split concrete – and dismantled him over five sets, too.

By the time he faced Khachanov, the American’s eye was in. Not much was going to get past him.

There was a mild furrowing of brows as four break point opportunities went begging in the second set, but it did not last long. When he neatly collected three more opportunities with yet more clinical returning, he took the first of them: another return and a backhand error in response from his opponent. Three minutes later, Fritz had a two set lead and had yet to face a break point.

But even if he was making it look easy, Fritz needed to be in mental lockdown to keep his concentration levels at their maximum. One brief moment of carelessness could cost him the set – and that moment came after 82 minutes.

A sloppy service game presented Khachanov with his first break points of the match. He was back in contention.

For 30 minutes, Fritz was lost. Every shot that had been laser-guided into spaces far beyond Khachanov’s racket were now flying hither and thither.

After five games of that set, the No.5 seed had landed only four first serves out of 14, an accuracy rating of 29 per cent. He had gone from being in the zone to being in mire in the space of a couple of points. Now the set had run away from him and he was a break down at the start of the fourth set.

Throughout this somewhat chaotic phase of the match, Khachanov had held firm. He had mopped up the punishment in the first two sets and never looked frustrated or despondent. When his moment came in the third set, he seized it and then grew in confidence as the scoreboard ticked over in his favour. He had to make his move as quickly as he could before the Fritz of the first two sets came back to play.

But, as the old saying goes, form is temporary; class is permanent. After a few anxious glances towards his team, Fritz found his way back into the zone.

More focused, moving well and with his serve firing well again, he got himself back onto level terms and the tie-break beckoned. Once there, Fritz was untouchable.

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