Taylor Fritz finally has his Grand Slam semifinal berth.

It took five quarterfinal appearances over a nine-year career for the now highest-seeded American to finally break through, but Fritz seized a spot in the final four at the U.S. Open after knocking off World No. 4 Alexander Zverev 7-6 (2), 3-6, 6-4, 7-6 (3) at Arthur Ashe Stadium on Tuesday.

Usually reserved, Fritz couldn’t contain his emotion and let out an emphatic scream upon sealing the victory.

That high, however, didn’t last very long.

“The emotion level is down,” he said. “It’s cool I’m in the semis, but I very much have the mindset of the job’s not done. I keep taking it one match at a time, like I’ve been all tournament, focused on the next match ahead of me. The way I came out today was different because I’ve just been in this situation enough times.

“I think a question I got asked pretty much every time I lost in my quarterfinals was what’s it going to take to go further? And the answer I gave was always just keep putting myself in these situations, and I’ll become more comfortable and get better.

“That’s definitely what happened. The quarterfinals didn’t feel like this big thing to me.”

It may have been the biggest win of Fritz’s career, but it was an even bigger win for American men in tennis.

After Frances Tiafoe defeated No. 9-seeded Bulgarian Grigor Dimitrov on Tuesday night, it will be an All-American semifinal between the World No. 20 and Fritz.

This guarantees that one of them will get a shot at ending the 21-year drought since the last American man, Andy Rodick, won the tournament in 2003.

Tuesday was just another layer to a career year for Fritz.

Not only is he just the fourth active American man to reach a Grand Slam semifinal after Tiafoe, Tommy Paul and Ben Shelton, but Fritz also has four ATP Top-10 major wins — the most by an American in one year since Andre Agassi in 1999.

After stalling out in the quarterfinals at both the Australian Open and Wimbledon this year, Fritz is closer to his first Grand Slam title than ever before.

This wasn’t an out-of-the-ordinary match for Fritz and Zverev.

The two have enjoyed some extremely close matches over the years, including Fritz’s comeback five-set victory over Zverev in the Round of 16 at Wimbledon earlier this summer.

In their 10 meetings, there have been nine sets that required a tiebreaker.

Two of those sets were featured in Tuesday’s match, and Fritz triumphed in both — the first and the last.

Despite coming out on the wrong end of some of the match’s comparative statistics, Fritz delivered in big spots.

He finished with 12 aces compared to Zverev’s 14, while also committing six more unforced turnovers (48) than the German (42).

But Fritz was in the driver’s seat for a majority of the match, controlling the action behind his strong service game. He won 20 of 21 points on his first serve in the fourth set and 81 percent in the entire match.

“My backhand, I don’t remember since being on tour hitting my backhand this badly,” Zverev said. “I just don’t. I mean, I was missing shots which were in the middle of the court with no pace, and bottom of the net. Terrible. Just absolutely terrible by me.

“My forehand was OK, actually. My serve was OK. But my most reliable shot, the shot that I’m most known for, the shot that you normally wake me up at 3:00 a.m. and I would not miss, was absolutely not there today, and I have no words for it, to be honest.”

Fritz and Zverev have traded off wins since 2018, with Zverev holding the edge, 5-4, coming into Tuesday’s match.

The two are now all evened up.

After his fourth-round win over Casper Ruud, Fritz said he was sick of just making it to the quarterfinals.

After qualifying for the semis on Tuesday, he said he felt like it was his time to take a step further.

We’ll see just how far Fritz can go.