LONDON, July 8 (Xinhua) -- Alexander Zverev reached his first Wimbledon men's singles semifinal on Wednesday with a straight-sets victory over Taylor Fritz, while British wildcard Arthur Fery continued his remarkable run by advancing to the last four.
Second seed Zverev defeated sixth seed Fritz 6-4, 6-4, 6-2 to end a seven-match losing streak against the American and secure his maiden Wimbledon semifinal appearance. The victory also kept the recent French Open champion on course for a second Grand Slam title.
"He has been beating me for two years straight and I'm very happy to be in the semifinals after finally getting a win," Zverev said. "Today I knew I had to play an almost perfect match, and I felt like I did that."
Zverev will next face Britain's Arthur Fery, who stunned ninth seed Flavio Cobolli 6-4, 7-6 (4), 6-0 to reach his first Grand Slam semifinal.
Ranked 114th in the world, the 23-year-old became the first men's wildcard to reach the Wimbledon semifinals in 25 years after producing another composed performance in front of a home crowd.
"I felt emotions that I've never experienced before in my life," Fery said. "I'm just going to keep going. I've been doing a great job for the past 10 days, so I'm just going to do the same thing."
In the women's singles, 12th seed Marta Kostyuk defeated Italy's Jasmine Paolini 6-3, 6-2 to reach her second Grand Slam semifinal and first at Wimbledon.
Kostyuk dedicated the victory to her 89-year-old grandfather.
"I'm so happy I'm able to do this while my grandpa is still alive," she said. "He's always telling me what I should do better, but these past few matches he was just telling me how proud he was."
Ninth seed Linda Noskova of the Czech Republic defeated Belgium's Elise Mertens 6-3, 7-5 to reach her first Grand Slam semifinal.
"The feelings are incredible. Like never before," the 21-year-old said. "This is why I'm playing tennis, for these matches and these courts." ■
