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NEW YORK — Frances Tiafoe loves the spotlight. Loves interacting with a crowd. Loves the electricity of being an American at the US Open, at Arthur Ashe Stadium, in particular. What he loves most of all, of course, is coming out on the right side of a match in that environment, at that arena.
Add in the heightened tension of a fifth set against a friend and countryman he lost to in the quarterfinals at Flushing Meadows a year ago, Ben Shelton, and Tiafoe’s attention-grabbing victory Friday meant a lot to him, even if it was in the afternoon, not at night, even if it was in the third round, not Week 2.
Solving Shelton’s big serve and playing brilliantly at the net, the 20th-seeded Tiafoe won their all-American rematch 4-6, 7-5, 6-7 (5), 6-4, 6-3 across 4 hours, 3 minutes to reach the fourth round at Flushing Meadows for the fifth consecutive year.
“All my friends and close ones (were) saying, ‘How is he not playing at night? I don’t know how I’m going to get there.’ Da, da, da. Blah, blah, blah. I was like, ’Fact of the matter is, we’re not playing at night. It doesn’t really matter. I just want to win,’” said Tiafoe, a 26-year-old from Maryland whose best Grand Slam run was a 2022 semifinal appearance at the US Open.
“It would have been cool at night,” he said. “Look, it was epic during the day. I think everyone loved it.”
Well, everyone other than the 13th-seeded Shelton, his team and his fans, of course.
“It was just one of those back-and-forth, back-and-forth,” said Shelton, a 21-year-old from Georgia, “and I wasn’t able to capitalize on the chances I had in the end. When he had them today, he really came through in the big moments.”
When it ended, with one last winning volley off Tiafoe’s racket that he hit quite nonchalantly but was anything but — “Dude, it looked casual, but I was tight as hell,” he said he told Shelton afterward — the pals met at the net for a hug and a lengthy chat.
“It’s important to show it sometimes — that you can be happy for a guy when they beat you,” Shelton said.
Their meeting in 2023 was at night, and Shelton went up 2-1 in sets before winning in four. This time, Tiafoe again trailed by 2-1, but he never went away.
“Just don’t lay down. Having pride in myself,” Tiafoe said. “I just want to win or lose matches, knowing the guy beat me (and) I didn’t beat myself. No free lunches.”
Shelton and Tiafoe are both part of a group of five Americans in the top 20 of the ATP rankings, making some think the country’s long wait for a men’s champion at a major could end someday soon. Andy Roddick’s 2003 US Open trophy was the most recent Slam title for a man from the United States.
The highest-ranked U.S. man at the moment, No. 12 Taylor Fritz, moved on with a 6-3, 6-4, 6-2 win against Francisco Comesana and now will take on three-time Slam finalist Casper Ruud, who beat Juncheng Shang in five sets after dropping the first two. Yet another American, Brandon Nakashima, who is currently No. 50, advanced by eliminating Wimbledon semifinalist Lorenzo Musetti 6-2, 3-6, 6-3, 7-6 (4).
One men’s fourth-round matchup established Friday was No. 6 Andrey Rublev vs. No. 9 Grigor Dimitrov.
Shelton, a left-hander, hadn’t lost serve even once in two wins this week before Friday and did manage to produce 23 aces, reaching 143 mph. But Tiafoe accumulated a whopping 21 break points — the most any opponent ever has against Shelton — and converted five. The last made it 3-1 in the fifth set.
“Since I’ve been on tour,” Shelton said, “today was probably the best that anyone has returned my serve.”
Tiafoe’s been focusing on improving that aspect of his game since pairing up with David Witt, who coached Venus Williams for years.
The other key Friday? Tiafoe kept charging forward, and he kept putting away volleys. He won 35 of 48 points when he made it to the net. As usual, Tiafoe played to the fans, breaking out his “Salt Bae” celebration after one point.
Tiafoe hasn’t always excelled at five-setters: He was just 6-13 in matches that went the distance before Friday. Shelton was 6-2. But none of that mattered on this occasion.
“Once he got that lead in the fifth,” Shelton said, “he really started to fly.”