Black women named Althea, Coco, Naomi, Serena, Sloane, and Venus have brought countless joy in winning championships and other matches at the U.S. Open tennis championships.
On Friday, it was Frances Tiafoe‘s turn.
For the second year in a row, Black men competed against one another in the U.S. Open, with Tiafoe defeating Ben Shelton in a 4-hour, 3-minute masterpiece that may go down as the greatest match between two Black men in professional tennis history.
Tiafoe won in five sets, 4-6, 7-5, 7-6 (5), 6-4, 6-3 at Arthur Ashe Stadium in New York to advance to the fourth round.
In 2022, at just 24, Tiafoe became the first Black man to reach the U.S. Open semifinals since the man that the stadium is named for, Ashe, accomplished the feat in 1968.
In last year’s U.S. Open quarterfinals, Tiafoe had the chance to do it for the second year in a row but was upset by a then-unranked 20-year-old Shelton.
“Losing last year to him, (I) struggled for a long time, played really, really bad for a very, very long time,” Tiafoe said of last year’s loss to Shelton. “A lot of things have happened since then. I struggled with a lot of things, motivation-wise, things like that, taking the game for granted. So many other things, so, you know, it was amazing to have that matchup. I was, like, ‘Look, I’m going to get to the round for sure. I really want that matchup.’ I was like, ‘But, please, no one (beat) him. It would be epic to do this again.’ ”
It was indeed epic. Tiafoe lost to the eventual U.S. Open champion Carlos Alcarez in the 2022 semifinals. Last year, Shelton lost to 24-time grand slam champion Novak Djokovic. Alcarez was stunned Thursday night, while Djokovic went down after Tiafoe’s win ast night. No American male has won a grand slam title since Andy Roddick at the 2003 U.S. Open, and this year is as good as any for that winless streak to end. Perhaps Tiafoe is the American to do it.
Tiafoe was asked for his thoughts on his next opponent, Australian Alexei Popyrin, who defeated Djokovic.
“He’s been working really hard,” Tiafoe said. “He’s a great guy, great player. Obviously, he’s going to be tough. You don’t expect anything easy at this point.”
Tiafoe and Popyrin play Sunday in the round of 16 with the winner advancing to the quarterfinals.
