Taylor Fritz records milestone 250th win of career with victory over Cerundolo in Madrid

American Taylor Fritz is through to the semifinals of the Mutua Madrid Open after a hard-fought 6-1, 3-6, 6-3 quarterfinal victory over Francisco Cerundolo on Wednesday night.

And with that win, he reaches two milestones.

First of all, Fritz’s victory over the Argentine was the 250th win of his career, making him the sixth man born in 1995 or later (and just the fourth man born in 1997 or later) to hit that number.

MEN BORN IN 1995 OR LATER WITH 250+ WINS (tour-level):

• 416: Alexander Zverev [born in 1997]
• 355: Daniil Medvedev [born in 1996]
• 321: Stefanos Tsitsipas [born in 1998]
• 311: Andrey Rublev [born in 1997]
• 261: Karen Khachanov [born in 1996]
• 250: Taylor Fritz [born in 1997]

And second of all, Fritz is actually the first American man to reach the semifinals of Madrid since it switched to clay in 2009.

Only two American men had made it to the final four in Madrid before this—Andre Agassi twice in 2002 and 2004, then Robby Ginepri in 2005—but that was when the Masters 1000 event was held on indoor hard courts, after the US Open in the fall.

Fritz is into the fourth Masters 1000 semifinal of his career now, having won Indian Wells in 2022 and reaching two other semifinals at Indian Wells in 2021 and Monte Carlo in 2023.

Right before Madrid, Fritz reached the first ATP clay-court final of his career in Munich—and that momentum has clearly carried over to Madrid. He beat players who had won ATP clay-court titles this year in his first three matches: Cordoba champion Luciano Darderi in the second round, Rio de Janeiro and Santiago champion Sebastian Baez in the third round and Estoril champion Hubert Hurkacz in the fourth round.

Then, Fritz got some revenge against Cerundolo, having lost their only previous meeting in the third round of Roland Garros last year, 3-6, 6-3, 6-4, 7-5. It looked like their second meeting would go even longer as the Argentine was up 30-0 serving at 3-4 in the third, but Fritz reeled off the last eight points in a row—breaking serve then holding at love—to close it out.

Up next for Fritz will be Andrey Rublev, a 4-6, 6-3, 6-2 winner over two-time defending champion Carlos Alcaraz earlier in the day. Fritz leads the head-to-head, 5-3, including winning four of their last five meetings, though Rublev did win their only prior clay-court meeting in Monte Carlo last year, 5-7, 6-1, 6-3.