Fritz, Opelka to meet in all-U.S. boys' semifinals at Wimbledon

July 9, 2015 11:58 AM

By Sally Milano, USTA.com

An American is guaranteed a spot in the boys' final at the 2015 Wimbledon Junior Championships. Both Taylor Fritz and Reilly Opelka won their quarterfinal matches Thursday and will square off against each other Friday in the semifinals.

Either Fritz or Opelka will then take on the winner of the other semifinal match between No. 12 seed Mikael Ymer of Sweden and unseeded Patrik Niklas-Salminen of Finland in the final, which is scheduled for Sunday at the All England Club in London.

Top seed Fritz, a 17-year-old from Rancho Santa Fe, Calif., has been red hot of late and is coming off a runner-up finish to fellow American Tommy Paul at the junior French Open last month in Paris. Currently ranked No. 1 in the ITF World Junior Rankings, the 6-foot-4 right-hander (pictured above) has dropped only one set thus far at Wimbledon, in his quarterfinal match against No. 11 Yunseong Chung of Korea, 6-2, 4-6, 6-0. He posted straight-sets wins earlier in the tournament against Jay Clarke of Great Britain in the first round, Sora Fukuda of Japan in the second round and Franco Capalbo of Argentina in the third round.

Opelka, a 6-foot-10 17-year-old from Palm Coast, Fla., has had a more difficult road to the semifinals, pulling out a marathon comeback win in his first-round match against Alex De Minaur of Australia, 4-6, 6-3, 13-11. He then upset No. 3 seed Corentin Denolly of France, 6-4, 4-6, 6-4, in the second round, knocked off Yosuke Watanuki of Japan, 7-6 (4), 6-3, in the third round and stunned fellow American William Blumberg, the No. 10 seed from Greenwich, Conn., 6-3, 6-3, in the quarterfinals.

U.S. juniors have had an impressive showing at Wimbledon in 2015, with four American boys – Fritz, Opelka, Blumberg and Paul – and two U.S. girls – Michaela Gordon and Tornado Alicia Black – reaching the quarterfinals.

 

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