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Welcome to the Wimbledon briefing, where The Athletic will explain the stories behind the stories on each day of the tournament.
On Day 10, heartache for the last American man standing and a first-time semifinalist embracing the grass.
How did the last American man standing fall?
Alexander Zverev, the No. 2 seed at Wimbledon and the French Open champion, is hard enough to beat on an average day at the office.
Get him on a day when he lands his crushing first serve more than 80 percent of the time, and it’s going to be close to impossible — even on the grass of Wimbledon, where his results pale in comparison to those at the other Grand Slams.
After a 6-4, 6-4, 6-2 thrashing of Taylor Fritz, the No. 6 seed and the last American man standing, the 29-year-old German has landed in the Wimbledon semifinals for the first time. He’d not previously been past the fourth round.
Coming into the match, Fritz was Zverev’s nemesis. He held a 10-5 record and beat him last month on grass in Germany. He’d won their past seven matches.
Grass is also arguably Fritz’s best surface. His serve skids across the turf, and his chip returns either float to the baseline or cut into the front of the court, handcuffing opponents in ways the 28-year-old American can’t find on hard courts and clay.
None of that bothered Zverev on Wednesday afternoon on No. 1 Court. It was his third consecutive day on the court, because his fourth-round match against Jiří Lehečka (13) didn’t finish before the 11 p.m. curfew on Monday, and that didn’t bother him either.
Instead, it was Fritz who seemed worn down and worn out. He has been playing through knee tendinitis for much of the season. He has said he felt great the past 10 days, but he received treatment on his right knee during the second set.
“I would have liked to feel 100 percent and try to give him a match,” Fritz said in his news conference.
“I felt fine, felt really good in my warm-up actually. Felt like my warm-up was great. Then, yeah, I have no answers as to why three games in it was like that.”
Still, he could have had the two healthiest knees in the world, and probably still would not have won.
Zverev wasn’t just dominant with his first serve. He won three-quarters of the points on his second serve, too. For most of the afternoon, he had twice as many winners as he did unforced errors.
For Zverev, the Wimbledon performance is an emphatic follow-up to Roland Garros, where he won his first Grand Slam title.
Now, all that stands between him and the Wimbledon final is the British wild card Arthur Féry, who upset No. 9 seed Flavio Cobolli 6-4, 7-6(4), 6-0 in a stunning result on Centre Court.
— Matt Futterman
How did a young, old head take a decisive step forward?
For a not insignificant chunk of her Wimbledon quarterfinal against Belgium’s Elise Mertens, Linda Nosková was going through it on No. 1 Court — while entirely in control of the match.
The 21-year-old Czech, who broke into the top 40 in 2023, was the protagonist throughout against the No. 25 seed. Her serves and groundstrokes skidded through the grass and had Mertens on her heels all afternoon. Nosková jumped all over Mertens’ serve, too, creating several break points — which is where Nosková started to have issues.
She would miss the line by millimeters or sweep an onrushing groundstroke wide. She would push a volley just long. She would get Mertens exactly where she wanted her, and then let her off the hook.
But she would also hit barely believable passing shot winners from feet behind the baseline, or bludgeon inside-out forehands into Mertens’ backhand corner until she could no longer withstand them. And whether she missed on a key point or brought up an opportunity, Nosková would react just about the same way, with a wry look toward her box.
After not quite putting Mertens away several times over, Nosková finally struck in the 11th game of the second set, breaking serve to lead 6-5 and then serving out clinically for a 6-3, 7-5 win.
When it was over, she sunk to her knees in joyous disbelief.
No. 12 seed Marta Kostyuk, the 24-year-old Ukrainian who has won 21 of her past 22 matches is next, after she defeated 2024 finalist Jasmine Paolini, Italy’s No. 13 seed, 6-3, 6-2.
Nosková knows she must embrace the two sides of grass-court tennis to beat her. That’s all right by her.
“I feel like I can use a lot of sides of my tennis. I can use a lot of drop shots, slices, approaches to the net, I can use my serve a lot. Just my game style helps me throughout all the tough times,” she said in her news conference.
— James Hansen
Shot of the day
British wild card Féry was so inspired during his shock straight-sets win over Cobolli that he forced his opponent to pull off brilliant shots of his own. This backhand slice pass / drop volley exchange is just lovely:
Drop Shots
🇺🇦 How Kostyuk, who had lost her tennis patience, found it in her darkest moments.
📥 Kostyuk’s coach, Sandra Zaniewska, is exploring the most intimate dialogue in tennis — through a newsletter.
🇮🇹 Relive Paolini’s last Wimbledon run, when she went all the way to the final in 2024.
Up next: Women’s semifinals
🎾 Karolína Muchová (10) vs. Coco Gauff (7)
8:30 a.m. ET on ESPN, ESPN Unlimited
Coco Gauff’s new understanding of grass has faced several types of challenge the past 10 days, and Muchová, the 29-year-old from the Czech Republic who plays a tennis made of steel and silk, may be the sternest. Gauff, 22, has won all but one of their meetings, but Muchová’s lone win came in their most recent match, and she has the tools on grass to drag Gauff around the court and make her uncomfortable. That’s what Gauff normally does to opponents. A potential classic lies in wait.
🎾 Marta Kostyuk (12) vs. Linda Nosková (9)
Follows Muchová vs. Gauff on ESPN, ESPN Unlimited
Fair warning: This could turn into a very nervous match. Kostyuk is playing in her second major semifinal, and her first was only last month at the French Open. Nosková, 21 and from the Czech Republic, has never got this far at a Grand Slam before. Nosková’s game is more suited to grass, but Kostyuk will ask her to hit one more ball time and again, and she can end a point from nowhere herself, too. If the nerves don’t linger, expect fireworks.
Wimbledon 2026 women’s bracket
Wimbledon 2026 men’s bracket
Tell us what you noticed on the 10th day…
This article originally appeared in The Athletic.
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