It just happens at every Grand Slam. One of the next generation of American men began to appear dangerous, raising hopes of a breakthrough.
Then one of the familiar enemies who had won the biggest titles in the sport shattered the dream.
Recently, Americans have drawn closer together, which only makes failures harder to swallow. Taylor Fritz said he wanted to cry on his chair next to the court when he lost to Rafael Nadal in game 5 of this summer’s Wimbledon quarter-finals.
No one has to dream anymore.
Frances Tiafoe did what no young American tennis player has ever done on Monday afternoon at the US Open, beating Nadal in four sets to knock out a member of the sport known as the Big Three for the first time ever. Grand Slam tournament.
Tiafoe beat Nadal, 6-4, 4-6, 6-4, 6-3. He clutched his head and dropped to his knees as Nadal hit the last backhand into the net.
The victory marks the next step for the American tennis player, who has not won a Grand Slam title for 19 years. Tiafoe and her 20-somethings have been solid members of this year’s top 30, but haven’t made it to the next level yet.
For Tiafoe, a 24 years old strong and talented from Hyattsville, Md., who is one of the fastest players in the game, winning the biggest win of his career and coming from his hometown in a stadium packed with bars home with the sound that reverberated on the roof after every point game, with hearty cheers for both an American underdog team and a beloved champion.
Tiafoe rattled the crowd for all it was worth, fisting and demanding more noise for his best shots. After a key winner let him break Nadal’s decisive serve, he sprinted back to his seat, spinning the crowd further and letting the roars fall on him.
Tiafoe said before the match that he needed to somehow match Nadal’s intensity from the first point to the last and that’s exactly what he did. He tripped briefly in the fourth set, when he was forced to serve while the roof was closing because of the forecast for rain. Notably shaken, he complained to the presiding referee, missed an easy volley and was sloppy with his landing shots – letting Nadal break him and gain the advantage.
But he quickly bounced back to break Nadal’s serve in the next game, then started darting away and gliding across the court chasing every ball he could get his hands on. A regular serve that hits 130 mph on a radar gun is also useful. A 134 mph rocket brought him to the finish line in a game.
He also took advantage of the fact that Nadal, the 22-time Grand Slam champion, was not playing at his peak.
Nadal is still finding his form at the end of a strange, injury-prone year that has somehow still turned out to be one of his best.
He was barely able to walk with his chronically injured left foot six weeks before the Australian Open and thinks he may have to retire. Then he started to feel better, playing a tournament before the first Grand Slam of the year, and then winning, coming back in two sets in the final against world No. 1 Daniil Medvedev.
He cracked a rib before the final of the BNP Paribas Open in Indian Wells, California, and then the pain in his foot returned just weeks before the French Open.
Playing on Wimbledon grass for the first time in three years, he got better with each match and it looked like the deciding factor for the final against Djokovic. But he tore an abs in the match against Fritz. He withdrew from the tournament the next day.
Recovery from that injury took longer than expected. Nadal arrived in New York to play only one tight match, which he lost to Croatia’s Borna Coric in Ohio. At Queens, Rinky Hijikata, a wild card player from Australia ranked 198 in the world, beat him in the first round. Nadal struggled to find court for most of the first two sets of his second match against Fabio Fognini of Italy.
In the match against Tiafoe on Monday, Nadal had to consult a physiotherapist after the first set. He made double mistakes at key moments and failed to generate the torque always needed for his power, which also left him vulnerable to injury.
