Frances Tiafoe out in Wimbledon 2nd round; Taylor Fritz wins

American Frances Tiafoe, the No. 12 seed, joined the parade of seeded players exiting Wimbledon, as he was eliminated by 2022 semifinalist Cameron Norrie 4-6, 6-4, 6-3, 7-5 in the second round Wednesday. 

In seven majors since the start of 2024, Tiafoe has now been eliminated in the second round four times. Wimbledon is the only major where he has not reached at least the quarterfinals, losing in the third or fourth round each of the past four years.

The last time he exited the All England Club before the third round was in 2019, when he lost his opening match. 

Avoiding the upset bug Wednesday was fifth-seeded American Taylor Fritz, for whom late-night finishes and five-set matches are becoming a habit at this year's Wimbledon.

This time, though, he managed to wrap up his win over Gabriel Diallo on No. 1 Court before the match was suspended -- making sure he won't have to come back on court for a fourth straight day.

That was a day after he finished off another five-set win over Giovanni Mpetshi Perricard in a match that was halted on Monday night at about 10:15 p.m. after Fritz forced a fifth set, with Wimbledon's 11 p.m. curfew looming.

He completed the win over Diallo a little later than that on Wednesday.

"That's an incredibly hard match," Fritz said. "The fourth set that I lost, I really don't think there's much I did wrong at all."

Fritz sustained a cut to his elbow after diving to reach a ball when he had break point while trailing 3-2 in the fourth set. Although he returned the ball, Diallo won the point and went on to hold serve.

Fritz has now played two matches -- 109 total games -- through three days. He is looking forward to finally getting a day off.

"Tomorrow is going to be a very, a very light hit. I think I've played plenty of tennis," he said. "I'm very due a nice, relaxing day."

Fritz is the seventh top-five seed in the Open era to reach the third round with back-to-back five-set wins to start a major, and third to do so at Wimbledon. He'll try to repeat what Boris Becker did in the 1996 Australian Open, go on to win the title after starting with back-to-back five-setters.

Earlier on No. 1 Court, Tiafoe got off to a good start, taking the opening set with a single break of serve. But everything changed starting at the end of the second, as Norrie -- who had never previously beaten a top-20 player at Wimbledon -- bristled with energy and dictated points as Tiafoe began to fade.

Tiafoe left the court for seven minutes for a bathroom break before the start of the fourth set, but Norrie was not put off his stride and broke serve for a 4-3 lead. Again Tiafoe managed to respond, but Norrie was relentless as he again pounced on the American's serve and closed out the match.

Another American, Jenson Brooksby, lost his second-round match 6-4, 5-7, 6-2, 6-4 to Brazilian 18-year-old Joao Fonseca, the youngest man in the field at the All England Club this week.