The headline is that this is Musetti’s first Grand Slam semifinal, playing on grass — a surface on which just a year ago he said he felt lost.

12 months on, this victory lifts his grass-court record to 18-9, a 67 per cent win rate, compared to 63 on clay and 49 on hard — though over larger sample sizes. He is 12-2 on grass in 2024, and in consecutive matches has beaten two players whose serves and serve plus one are their strongest weapon. First, Giovanni Mpetshi Perricard, and now Fritz, who he completely muffled in terms of winning points behind first serves.

Fritz still won more points in rallies between zero (an unreturned serve) and four shots, 92 compared to Musetti’s 88. But Musetti overwhelmed that point differential in all the other points played, gaining +6 on rallies of between five and eight shots, and +11 on rallies of nine shots or more.

There were two secrets to all this. The most important is the backhand slice — a Wimbledon weapon, and a shot that is one of the strongest in Musetti’s arsenal — and a missing piece in that of Fritz. Its effectiveness allowed Musetti to reduce the American’s opportunity to hit his strength (his forehand) into the Italian’s presumed weakness (his one-handed backhand.) Using the slice, Musetti could cleanly and repeatedly send the ball back to Fritz neutrally, extending rallies and putting Fritz in a position from which he couldn’t attack as effectively.

That wasn’t the biggest problem for Fritz. Against Musetti’s slice, he made errors off his forehand from being forced to hit up on the low, skidding ball and on his backhand, could only spin a high-bouncing shaped ball back into the ad-court. That allowed Musetti to camp out on that side of the court and run around to hit his forehand off a ball in his strikezone, repeatedly turning neutral situations into attacking ones. Fritz, not a slicer, could not reply with the same shot, which would both have lessened that problem and given him a route to approach the net. Musetti was also able to disguise his attack better than Fritz, mixing in heavy and spitting one-handed topspin backhands to keep the American honest.

Musetti’s backhand slice and chip controlled the match. (Julian Finney/Getty Images)
The next secret is returning. Musetti (like Tommy Paul did, at least for a set, against Carlos Alcaraz) used a chipped forehand return off Fritz’s wide serve, sending it low on to the American’s backhand side. He used the same chip on his backhand side, happy to give Fritz a neutral ball and stop him from taking advantage of the limitations of returning with a one-handed backhand.

Djokovic, who can slice with the best of them and is more of a spot server than Fritz, is a different proposition. But if that serve starts winning a few less points come Friday, just take a look at Musetti’s racket, and the backspin on the ball.