Taylor Fritz suffers bloody Wimbledon injury as John McEnroe gets fired up

Taylor Fritz bloodied his elbow with a daring dive to prolong an incredible rally with Gabriel Diallo on Wednesday night. And seven-time Grand Slam champion John McEnroe couldn't get enough of it, with the BBC commentator raving about his fellow American's commitment during the second-round clash on Centre Court.

Fritz was ready to go for broke at break-point up as he looked to get back on terms with Diallo in the fourth set. The Californian was sent scrambling to the left side of the court and then sprinting over to the right as Diallo seemed certain to win the point. But with a burst of pace and an army-style dive onto the ground, Fritz made contact and somehow managed to divert the ball back over the net.

It was straight on Diallo's racket, which allowed the Canadian to win the point with ease, but McEnroe on co-commentary duties was full of praise for Fritz's incredible attempt.

"What a great effort!" he shouted. "What a beautiful effort! You've got to love that, that is really sweet. Every shot he made he was barely getting to it. That is so good to see."

Diallo checked on Fritz with a thumbs-up gesture as the American's girlfriend, Morgan Riddle, winced from the stands. The match had to be paused as blood started leaking from a cut on Fritz's elbow.

McEnroe continued: "Taylor, we love the effort. And man, with a little bit of luck he might have pulled that off."

Fritz prolonged the delay by taking a medical timeout, leaving Diallo to stew at break point against. The match did finally resume after a pause of several minutes, and after an even longer battle at deuce, Diallo clung onto his service game and went on to win the fourth set altogether, levelling the match at 2-2. But Fritz found another gear in the decider to come through 3-6 6-3 7-6 4-6 6-3.

Having endured a five-set battle with monster-serving Frenchman Giovanni Mpetshi Perricard in round one, which was played out over two days due to the 11pm curfew, Fritz has already had a tough time of it at Wimbledon.

But there is no doubt that the fifth seed is one of the men to beat. He kicked off his grass-court campaign with an overall win at the Boss Open, where he beat Alexander Zverev in the final.

And although his bid for another triumph at Queen's was cut short by Corentin Moutet in the first round, Fritz bounced back by notching another victory in Eastbourne, where he beat Joao Fonseca, Marcos Giron, Alejandro Davidovich Fokina and Jenson Brooksby.