Two-time defending champion Carlos Alcaraz beats Taylor Fritz to return to the Wimbledon final

By Canadian Press on July 11, 2025.

LONDON (AP) — Carlos Alcaraz moved within one victory of a third consecutive Wimbledon championship and sixth Grand Slam title overall at age 22 by defeating Taylor Fritz 6-4, 5-7, 6-3, 7-6 (6) on Friday.

The No. 2-seeded Alcaraz takes a 24-match winning streak into the final Sunday, when he will face No. 1 Jannik Sinner or 24-time major champion Novak Djokovic.

Alcaraz beat Djokovic in the 2023 and 2024 title matches at the All England Club and is 5-0 so far in major finals. That includes a five-set comeback win over Sinner at the French Open a month ago.

The fifth-seeded Fritz, the runner-up to Sinner at last year’s U.S. Open, was trying to become the first American man in the Wimbledon final since Andy Roddick lost to Roger Federer in 2009.

Fritz had two chances to forced a fifth set against Alcaraz, leading 6-4 in the fourth-set tiebreaker. But Alcaraz on the next four points to finish off the win, then rocked back on his heels, spread his arms wide and screamed.

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Howard Fendrich, The Associated Press