Fritz into Wimbledon quarters after Thompson hurt

American Taylor Fritz progressed to the Wimbledon quarterfinals Sunday for a second consecutive year after Jordan Thompson retired because of injury with the No. 5 seed leading 6-1, 3-0.

With Fritz advancing, it's the fifth consecutive major in which at least one American man has made the quarterfinals -- the longest streak for the U.S. men since a run of six straight from the 2002 US Open to 2004 Australian Open.

"Not the way I wanted to go through, I was excited to play Jordan today, I was excited to play good tennis," Fritz said. "It's sad ... he's been battling out here, playing five-setters, I respect him for coming out ... I feel bad for him and I hope he gets better."

Thompson, who arrived at the All England Club dealing with a back issue, called for a medical timeout midway through the second set because of an apparent right thigh injury, and after three more points decided to call it a day. The Australian has had a couple retirements at majors before, most recently the 2023 US Open against Botic Van De Zandschulp, due to a leg injury. He was also forced to exit his 2021 Australian Open match against Casper Ruud with a shoulder injury.

Fritz and Ben Shelton, who advanced to the round of 16 with his straight-sets win Saturday, are the only Americans remaining in the men's singles draw. Looking ahead, only two American men in the past 15 years have reached the Wimbledon semifinals: Sam Querrey in 2017 and John Isner in 2018.

Fritz, the US Open runner-up last year, is 12-1 on grass this season, having won titles at Stuttgart and Eastbourne. His 12 tour-level grass match wins are the most by any American man in a season since Pete Sampras won 12 in 1999 at Queen's Club and Wimbledon.

Fritz next faces Russian 17th seed Karen Khachanov, who reached his second Wimbledon quarterfinal by beating Kamil Majchrzak 6-4, 6-2, 6-3 earlier Sunday.

"To be honest, today was a really great performance -- at least from my side," said Khachanov, who finished with more than twice as many winners as unforced errors 44-21.

Khachanov has been a Grand Slam semifinalist twice, at the US Open in 2022 and the Australian Open in 2023. He was a quarterfinalist at the All England Club four years ago.

The 109th-ranked Majchrzak was playing in a fourth-round match at a major for the first time. He was on a six-match Grand Slam losing streak before Wimbledon.

Other men's matches later were two-time defending champion Carlos Alcaraz vs. No. 14 Andrey Rublev, and Nicolas Jarry vs. Cam Norrie.

ESPN Research, The Associated Press and Reuters contributed to this report.