EmailPrintOpen Extended ReactionsWIMBLEDON, England -- After another wildly unpredictable start to a major, chock full of surprise winners and stunningly early exits, including recent champions Iga Swiatek and Elena Rybakina, the second week at the All England Club is upon us.There were 15 Americans -- eight women and seven men -- in the third round, marking the most to reach the round of 32 since 2000. By the end of Independence Day, five women and one man remained -- the most women to make it to the fourth round since 2002.Though Amanda Anisimova reached the final in 2025, no American has won a singles title at Wimbledon since Serena Williams in 2016, and no American man has done it since Pete Sampras in 2000. Anisimova was eliminated Saturday, but several talented and battle-tested players still have a chance. Will one of them stop the decade-long drought? Here are the Americans left in the draw, and how they got here.No. 6 Taylor FritzPlayers he has beaten so far: Dusan Lajovic, Patrick Kypson, Lorenzo SonegoUp next: No. 10 Alexander BublikPrevious best result at Wimbledon: Semifinals (2025)Easily the most consistent on grass among all the American men in recent years, Fritz, 28, has won five of his 10 career titles on the surface. On Saturday, with his 4-6, 6-3, 6-4, 7-6 (5) defeat of Sonego, Fritz became the first American man to reach the round of 16 at Wimbledon in three consecutive years since Andy Roddick in 2003 through 2005.With 46 wins on grass this decade, there is no man on tour with more wins on the surface in that span.After two previous quarterfinal appearances at Wimbledon, Fritz finally reached the semifinals last season and arrived at the All England Club having made the final at Stuttgart and Halle in June. He was sidelined because of a right knee injury earlier this season, and withdrew from Eastbourne last week, a tournament in which he was the two-time defending champion, to rest. He now says he can play without pain.Fritz has dropped just one set en route to the second week. Against Sonego on Saturday, he was led by his powerful hitting and strong serving. He had 13 aces on the day and won all but one of his service games.Though Fritz, and American fans, had undoubtedly hoped he would next play Frances Tiafoe, the No. 17 seed and current Halle champion, he will instead play Bublik on Monday. Bublik defeated Tiafoe in five sets Saturday night to clinch the last spot in the round of 16.Fritz and Bublik have played eight times on tour and have split the series. However, Fritz won their last meeting in the Stuttgart semifinals just a few weeks ago, 6-4, 6-4, and won their only other previous grass clash, as well. Fritz didn't know who he would be playing when he spoke to reporters Saturday, but he had been watching the match during his cool down and knew either one would be a tough opponent."Both are very crafty," Fritz said. "Good grass-court players playing well. In form. I mean, I have good stuff to go off of because I played both of them in this grass-court season."Yeah, I mean, no preference. But both [are] really, really dangerous players. It's not an easy round of 16."If Fritz were to win, he could face No. 2 seed Alexander Zverev, the newly crowned French Open champion, in the quarterfinals. Fritz has a 10-5 career record over the German, including in their previous seven meetings.No. 4 Jessica PegulaPlayers she has beaten so far: Darja Vidmanova, Sara Sorribes, Jessica Bouzas ManeiroUp next: No. 16 Iva JovicPrevious best result at Wimbledon: Quarterfinals (2023)Pegula, 32, has won two grass-court titles in her career, and reached the final at the German Open last month, but that hasn't translated into success at the All England Club over the years.In fact, Pegula even joked about her results on the surface after a win at Bad Homburg this season."Well, I like the German grass. Very specific," Pegula said. "My results have seemed to just show that ... that I like the German grass only."Though she reached the Wimbledon quarters in 2023, she had won just one match at the major since then, entering the 2026 tournament. But it seems Pegula has finally found some luck on the British grass this summer, and she has yet to drop a set through her matches. On Friday, she needed just 52 minutes to get past Bouzas Maneiro and lost only four games. Pegula, the top-ranked American, later called it a "really clean" performance and her best match of the tournament so far.But Pegula knows she has a tough test ahead of her against the teenage Jovic. They have played twice before, with Pegula winning both meetings, but never on grass. With so much on the line, Pegula is clearly excited for the matchup and the opportunity."She's tough," Pegula said. "Really good competitor. Does everything really well. I'm not surprised she's pretty good on grass."... [I am] excited again to challenge myself against someone who is much younger, who is playing with nothing to lose and no fear. I know she's going to come after me hard. I'll use that as motivation and try to be ready for as much as I can."No. 16 Iva JovicPlayers she has beaten so far: Jaqueline Cristian, Tatjana Maria, No. 18 Ekaterina AlexandrovaUp next: No. 4 Jessica PegulaPrevious best result at Wimbledon: First round (2025); Girls doubles champion (2024)Just 18 years old and in her second season on the WTA Tour, Jovic has already achieved success that many of her older peers could only dream of. She won her first tour-level title last September at the 500-level Guadalajara Open and reached the quarterfinals at the Australian Open to start the 2026 season.Jovic cracked the top 20 in February and reached as high as No. 16 this spring. With her third-round win Friday, she is expected to climb to No. 15 -- and could rise further if she keeps winning.After a third-round exit at Roland Garros, Jovic wasted no time in switching to -- and finding results on -- the grass. She reached the semifinals at the HSBC Championships at Queen's Club but then injured her left ankle and was forced to withdraw from Nottingham and Bad Homburg. But she has appeared to be healthy and ready at Wimbledon. After needing a tiebreak in the opening set of her first-round match against Cristian, Jovic then recorded an impressive bagel set. In her second-round match, she dropped just three games. She was pushed to a decider in a tricky match against Alexandrova but raised her level and found a way in 2 hours, 30 minutes."I don't even know how I pulled through it in the end," Jovic said after. "Lots of ups and downs."A former junior champion in doubles at the All England Club -- she won the 2024 title with fellow rising teenager Tyra Caterina Grant -- Jovic has a game well-suited for the grass and, despite limited experience on it, calls it her favorite surface. Jovic said she was looking forward to facing Pegula on grass and wasn't discouraged by her losing record against her."I think definitely this is a surface that probably favors both of us," Jovic said Friday. "Yeah, I like playing on the grass. I don't know. Hopefully, this will be the one I get her. You know, I'm 2-nil down, so I need to get a win on her here. I think I've improved as a player a lot since the first two times I played her."She added that she watched film of their previous meetings, but believed losing to the top players was to be expected during the early part of anyone's career."I think I have been proving, in general, that I'm getting closer, that I'm climbing, and playing better and better tennis," she said. "I hope that that can show. But I don't take too much weight to the fact that she's beaten me twice because I'm at a stage where I feel like I'm constantly changing as a player."No. 7 Coco GauffPlayers she has beaten so far: Tamara Korpatsch, Solana Sierra, Claire LiuUp next: No. 11 Belinda BencicPrevious best result at Wimbledon: Fourth round (2019, 2021, 2024)After coming through qualifying and advancing to the fourth round as a 15-year-old at Wimbledon in 2019, Gauff has become a household name and a two-time major singles champion. The site of her breakthrough, the All England Club, has always been of special significance for Gauff -- but it remains her worst-performing Slam.This year, despite being pushed to the brink in her second- and third-round clashes, Gauff, 22, has dug deep and matched her career-best result at Wimbledon. Against Sierra, she was two points from elimination in the deciding set, and then, after battling back, down three points in the tiebreak. "I'm happy with just how I fought and competed," Gauff said after the match.Against Liu, she faced another tiebreak and a deciding set, but again found a way.Now, on the brink of reaching the quarterfinals for the first time, Gauff will next take on Bencic, a 2025 semifinalist, on Sunday. They have played each other seven times, with Gauff winning on five occasions and during their last meeting in Miami this year. They have never played on grass.Gauff, who lost in the first round at the All England Club last year, didn't speak about Bencic during her news conference Friday but said she was proud of her run thus far, and hoped to continue."I've been in the fourth round a couple times here. I'm really hoping to get over the next step and make it to the quarterfinals here," Gauff said Friday. "That would be a big accomplishment for me, I think. But yeah, I'm definitely happy just to be in the second week of this tournament."No. 26 Madison KeysPlayers she has beaten so far: Kayla Day, Katie Swan, No. 6 Amanda AnisimovaUp next: No. 9 Linda NoskovaPrevious best result at Wimbledon: Quarterfinals (2015, 2023)There are few with more experience, or momentum, remaining in the women's draw than Keys. The 2025 Australian Open champion, who has reached the second week at all three majors this year, won the title at Eastbourne last week for her fourth WTA trophy on grass.And no active player on the WTA Tour has more wins on the surface than Keys, except Serena Williams and Venus Williams.Still, amazingly, Saturday marked her first career appearance on Centre Court. And, as she later told the crowd, she wanted to make it count.Facing Anisimova, Keys lost the first set. She was determined to extend her time on the most famous tennis court in the world."After that first set, I really just tried to dig deep because I didn't want my first time to end that way," Keys said during her postmatch interview. "So, I wanted to just, at the very least, try to get myself back in that match and make it competitive. And I think being able to do that, I was just able to change the momentum."Keys dominated the rest of the way with her powerful serving and aggressive shotmaking, and seemed to dismantle Anisimova in the key moments to secure a 3-6, 6-2, 6-3 victory. Having rallied from a set down against Day in the opening round, this is Keys' fourth major in which she has recorded multiple comeback wins.Though Keys was happy to get through to the fourth round, she said she wasn't satisfied."It would be absolutely amazing to make it obviously one step further, and this is the one Slam that I've never made the semifinals in," Keys said. "So, I would love to do that, and then if I make it there, then we can talk about the next step."Standing between Keys and a third quarterfinal appearance is Noskova, who won the title in Berlin last month and needed to force a comeback in her third-round match Saturday. Keys and Noskova have never played before, but Keys said she knows it will be a tough challenge against another big hitter."At this point now, every match is its own tournament in a big way," Keys said Saturday night. "I feel like the occasion changes things. [Noskova has] been playing fantastic tennis."I feel like it's going to be different in some ways just because I feel like Amanda hadn't had quite as many matches on grass and everything, versus playing someone like Linda, who's just broken into the top 10, won Berlin, beat a lot of really great players. It's going to be a little bit different in that way."Ashlyn Krueger (qualifier)Players she has beaten so far: Gabriela Andrea Knutson, Mai Hontama, Polina Iatcenko, No. 31 Donna Vekic, Mariam Bolkvadze, Daria SnigurUp next: No. 12 Marta KostyukPrevious best result at Wimbledon: Second round (2025); Girls doubles quarterfinalist (2021)It had been a tough year for the 22-year-old Krueger. Once ranked inside the top 30, she was down to No. 113 after losing in the first round of the French Open.But the grass has proven to be just the right surface for her.She came through qualifying to reach the semifinals at the Birmingham Classic last month and then won the title at the Lexus Ilkley Open, a 125 event. Needing to qualify at Wimbledon, Krueger is riding an 11-match win streak and is into the fourth round at a major for the first time. After her dominant 6-3, 6-2 victory over Snigur on Saturday, Krueger is back up to No. 66 in the live rankings.Krueger next faces Kostyuk, who won the biggest title of her career during the clay season at the 1000-level Madrid Open and then reached the semifinals at Roland Garros. They have played just once before in the round of 32, at Adelaide last year. Krueger came back to win that match 4-6, 6-2, 6-2.Though others might not have expected to see Krueger in the second week, Kostyuk feels differently -- and knows it could be a competitive match."I'm not very surprised that she made it to the fourth round," Kostyuk said. "I think she has [a] big serve and is good on grass. I played her in the beginning of last year when I was coming back from my injury, and I was very, very far from 100%. I lost in three sets in Adelaide, but it was a good match."So, it's going to be interesting. But, I mean, I played her in a little bit different conditions, and I felt different, so I think it's going to be a great match."
