Taylor Fritz wins resumed Wimbledon match in which Mpetshi Perricard hit a record 153 mph serve

LONDON (AP) — Taylor Fritz dealt with his opponent's 153 mph serve — it was the fastest in Wimbledon history, but Fritz won the point — and an overnight suspension before the fifth set to finish off a 6-7 (6), 6-7 (8), 6-4, 7-6 (6), 6-4 first-round win over Giovanni Mpetshi Perricard when they resumed Tuesday.

Not only did 2024 U.S. Open runner-up Fritz need to turn things around after dropping the opening two sets, but he was two points from defeat on a half-dozen occasions in the fourth-set tiebreaker Monday night.

“A really crazy match,” the No. 5-seeded Fritz said Tuesday after wrapping up the victory at No. 1 Court by breaking the big-serving Mpetshi Perricard at love in the last game. “I thought it was about to be all over last night in the fourth-set tiebreaker. But he came back on me in the first two tiebreakers, so I thought maybe I had one in me. I’m super happy to get through it.”

After Fritz forced the fifth set on Monday at about 10:15 p.m., the match was suspended because there is a curfew at the All England Club that halts play at 11 p.m., and officials were concerned about finishing by that time.

It was clear Fritz preferred to continue, but it wasn't up to him. Mpetshi Perricard was in favor of stopping when they did — “I wasn't in the best shape, to be honest,” he said — and didn't like the idea of needing to pause things at 5-all in the fifth if it came to that.

“He didn’t want to. That’s totally understandable. I wasn’t bothered or, I guess, upset at him for not wanting to play. I totally get it,” said Fritz, a 27-year-old Californian. “But I still felt confident. It would have been easy for me to get frustrated about not being able to play last night. To be honest, I felt confident going into the fifth set — (whether) it was last night or today. I had to tell myself he’s going to be sleeping on what just happened in the fourth set. I’m going to come back and keep doing what I was doing.”

As it turned out, he needed only 35 minutes Tuesday to get the job done in a contest that featured 66 total aces — 37 by Mpetshi Perricard, 29 by Fritz.

On the third point of the match Monday, Mpetshi Perricard — a 6-foot-8 Frenchman who is 21 — smacked a serve at 153 mph, eclipsing the old tournament best of 148 mph hit by Taylor Dent in 2010.

Fritz not only managed to get his racket on the ball and return it, but he eventually took that point with a forehand volley winner.

“I don’t really mind it, because it actually gives me absolutely zero time to think. Normally when I start thinking, that’s when I mess things up,” Fritz said. “The fact that it’s just all reflexes — I think that’s one of the things I do better in my return game, when I like to stand close (and) chip, holding a backhand grip. It’s just handsy and it’s reflexes. I’d much rather deal with the speed than the spot.”

He lost in the first round at the French Open last month but is far less comfortable on that event's red clay than Wimbledon's slick, speedy grass courts, which reward the power on his big serve and forehand.

Fritz reached the quarterfinals at Wimbledon in 2022 and last year and is coming off his fourth Eastbourne Open title on the surface last week.

“This is a huge, huge week for me, with the recent results on grass. So I was thinking about that in this match,” he said. “It put a lot of pressure on me, because I really didn't want to go out in the first round.”

Taylor Fritz's girlfriend, Morgan Riddle, centre, watches Taylor Fritz of the U.S. playing the first round men's singles match against Giovanni Mpetshi Perricard of France at the Wimbledon Tennis Championships in London, Tuesday, July 1, 2025.(AP Photo/Kirsty Wigglesworth)

Giovanni Mpetshi Perricard of France returns the ball to Taylor Fritz of the U.S. during their first round men's singles match at the Wimbledon Tennis Championships in London, Tuesday, July 1, 2025.(AP Photo/Kirsty Wigglesworth)

Taylor Fritz of the U.S. returns the ball to Giovanni Mpetshi Perricard of France during their first round men's singles match at the Wimbledon Tennis Championships in London, Tuesday, July 1, 2025.(AP Photo/Kirsty Wigglesworth)

Taylor Fritz of the U.S. celebrates winning the first round men's singles match against Giovanni Mpetshi Perricard of France at the Wimbledon Tennis Championships in London, Tuesday, July 1, 2025.(AP Photo/Kirsty Wigglesworth)

LONDON (AP) — Political opposition leaders in the United Kingdom have called for a human rights activist to be stripped of his citizenship over past social media posts allegedly containing violent and antisemitic language within days of the dual national returning to Britain after years in Egyptian prisons.

The leaders of the Conservative and Reform parties also demanded the deportation of Alaa Abd el-Fattah following the discovery of tweets from more than a decade ago in which he allegedly endorsed killing “Zionists’’ and police.

“The comments he made on social media about violence against Jews, white people and the police, amongst others, are disgusting and abhorrent,” Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch wrote Monday in the Daily Mail newspaper.

Abd el-Fattah on Monday apologized for the tweets while saying some had been taken out of context and misrepresented.

The activist has spent years in Egyptian prisons, most recently for allegedly spreading fake news about the government of President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi. He returned to the U.K. on Friday after Egyptian authorities lifted a travel ban that had forced him to remain in the country since he was released in September.

But he immediately became embroiled in controversy after Prime Minister Keir Starmer said he was “delighted” that Abd el-Fattah was back in the UK and had been reunited with his family.

That triggered the republication of messages on the social media platform Twitter, now X, that were described as antisemitic, homophobic and anti-British.

Abd el-Fattah expressed shock at the turn of events in a statement released Monday.

“I am shaken that, just as I am being reunited with my family for the first time in 12 years, several historic tweets of mine have been republished and used to question and attack my integrity and values, escalating to calls for the revocation of my citizenship,’’ he said.

The remarks were mostly expressions of a young man’s anger and frustrations in a time of regional crises such as the wars in Iraq, Lebanon and Gaza and the rise of police brutality against young people in Egypt, Abd el-Fattah said.

“Looking at the tweets now — the ones that were not completely twisted out of their meaning — I do understand how shocking and hurtful they are, and for that I unequivocally apologise,’’ he said in the statement.

But that has not staunched the flow of anger from politicians.

Reform Party leader Nigel Farage described the posts as “abhorrent” and said they showed Abd el-Fattah held views that are “completely opposed to our British way of life.”

“It should go without saying that anyone who possesses racist and anti-British views such as those of Mr. elFattah (sic) should not be allowed into the UK,” Farage wrote in a letter to Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood, who oversees immigration matters.

FILE - Pro-democracy activist Alaa Abd el-Fattah, who was in prison for almost all of the past 12 years, speaks to his friends at his home after he got a presidential pardon, in Cairo, Tuesday, Sept. 23, 2025. (AP Photo/Khaled Elfiqi, File)