Wimbledon: Lorenzo Sonego Fights Hard, but It’s Not Enough; Taylor Fritz Wins
Lorenzo Sonego battled for over two and a half hours, but it wasn’t enough. Taylor Fritz advances to the Wimbledon round of 16; despite trailing by a set, he managed to come back and seal the victory with a score of 4-6, 6-3, 6-4, 7-6(5). The No. 7 player in the ATP rankings will now face a tough challenge against either Frances Tiafoe or Alexander Bublik. The Piedmont native, meanwhile, returns home with his head held high, to the applause of the London crowd and a handshake from his opponent.
Sonego’s evening got off to the best possible start, with a break in the first set that put him up 3-2—a lead the much-feared American was unable to overcome. Fritz regained control in the second set, however, attempting to break the Italian’s serve in the fourth game and ultimately succeeding in the sixth. The same pattern repeated in the third set, where the decisive point came at 2-1; the Piedmontese player, however, clung tenaciously to the match, as demonstrated by the two break points he earned at 3-4, which would have put him back in the game.
It becomes clear in the fourth set—which is completely free of breaks—that Sonego has no intention of letting himself be dominated. The Piedmontese player actually has a great chance to secure a break that would also give him the set, but Fritz thwarts it and forces a tiebreak. Here, too, he prevailed, but only by playing a tight, defensive game right to the end. It was a bitter pill to swallow for the 31-year-old from Turin, though he knew he had truly fought tooth and nail.
The match against Fritz was, however, the third hurdle in a path that was already anything but easy for Sonego. The Turin native had opened his 2026 Wimbledon campaign by defeating Argentine Tomas Martin Etcheverry in four sets, in a match that lasted nearly four hours, before pulling off a true feat in the second round against Canadian Gabriel Diallo: a nearly four-and-a-half-hour battle that ended 7-6(4), 4-6, 7-6(4), 6-7(6), 6-2—a match in which the Piedmont native drew on all his determination at the decisive moments.
The No. 69 player in the ATP rankings thus leaves London after a tournament that confirmed just how much grass brings out his best qualities: his powerful serve and aggressive play make him a tough opponent for anyone on this surface, as evidenced by the 14 aces he recorded in the match against Diallo alone. This statistic speaks louder than any words about the tennis Sonego is capable of when he’s on his game.
Now, the eyes of Italian fans turn to Jannik Sinner, the defending champion and world No. 1, who has already advanced past the first three rounds of the tournament. The South Tyrolean’s run will continue late Sunday afternoon against Japan’s Shintaro Mochizuki, at Wimbledon 2026, where Italy is particularly well-represented, with no fewer than seven players in the men’s main draw: in addition to Sinner and Sonego himself, the field included Flavio Cobolli, Luciano Darderi, Matteo Arnaldi, Mattia Bellucci, and Matteo Berrettini.
