The next generation of top American players has struggled heavily against Nadal, Novak Djokovic and Roger Federer in Grand Slams. Tiafoe broke through by winning 6-4, 4-6, 6-4, 6-3.
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| Frances Tiafoe Downs Rafael Nadal at U.S. Open |
It happens at just about every Grand Slam. One of the American men of the so-called next generation begins to look dangerous, raising hopes for a breakthrough.
Then one of those familiar foes who have hogged the biggest trophies in the sport dashes the dream.
Lately the Americans have been getting closer, which has made the failures more difficult to swallow. Taylor Fritz said he wanted to cry on his chair beside the court when he lost to Rafael Nadal in a fifth-set tiebreaker in the Wimbledon quarterfinals this summer.
No one has to dream anymore.
Frances Tiafoe emerged on Monday at the U.S. Open in a way that went beyond the other top Americans of his generation, beating Nadal in four sets to knock one of the sport’s so-called Big Three — which also includes Novak Djokovic and Roger Federer — out of a Grand Slam tournament.
Tiafoe beat Nadal, 6-4, 4-6, 6-4, 6-3, with an intense, joyous effort on an electric afternoon at the Billie Jean King National Tennis Center. He grabbed his head and crouched to his knees when Nadal hit the final backhand into the net.
“I don’t even know what happened,” Tiafoe said, moments later. “Unbelievable day.”
The victory represented the next step for the American men, who have not won a Grand Slam singles title in 19 years. Tiafoe and his fellow 20-somethings have become solid members of the top 30 this year, but have yet to crack the next level.
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| Frances Tiafoe Downs Rafael Nadal at U.S. Open |
For Tiafoe, a strong and talented 24-year-old from Hyattsville, Md., who is one of the fastest players in the game and built like an N.F.L. defensive back, the win was the biggest of his career. It came in his home-country slam in a stadium packed to the rafters with the sound bellowing off the roof after nearly every point, with raucous cheers for both an American underdog and a beloved champion.
Tennis for Tiafoe, who is the child of immigrants from Sierra Leone, was simply a means to gain a scholarship to college. Then it became far more that.
Tiafoe rode the crowd for all it was worth, pumping his fists and asking for more noise on his best shots. After a key winner gave him a decisive break of Nadal’s serve in the third set, he sprinted to his chair, revving up the crowd even more and letting the roars fall over him.
The loss for Nadal, who was seeded second, came less than 24 hours after Daniil Medvedev, the top seed and defending champion, lost to Nick Kyrgios. It blew the men’s tournament wide open and nearly guaranteed that there will be a first-time Grand Slam champion for the third consecutive year.
Tiafoe said ahead of the match that he needed to somehow equal Nadal’s intensity from the first point to the last, and that is exactly what he did. He stumbled briefly in the fourth set, when he was forced to serve as the roof was closing because of a rainy forecast. Noticeably shaken, he complained to the chair umpire, missed an easy volley and got sloppy with his groundstrokes, letting Nadal break him.
But he quickly came back to break Nadal’s serve in the next game, and then began hammering away and scampering across the court to chase down every ball he could reach and many he couldn’t. A serve that regularly hits 130 miles per hour on the radar gun was plenty helpful, too. A 134-m.p.h. rocket brought him to within one game of the finish line.
He also took advantage of the fact that Nadal, a 22-time Grand Slam champion, was not playing at his best.
Nadal is still finding his form at the end of a strange, injury-plagued year that somehow could still end up being one of his best.