Hailed as the future of men’s tennis in the US as a teenager, Frances Tiafoe has found grand slam success elusive.
Three years ago, Tiafoe advanced to the quarter-finals of the Australian Open, where he was handily beaten by Rafael Nadal. He was hardly the first rising star to receive a reality check at the hands of a member of the big four, yet few who went before him were blessed with the speed, power and athleticism at Tiafoe’s disposal.
As he prepared to lock horns with Nadal again at this year’s US Open, the 24-year-old insisted that this time would be different. He was, he said, a better player now. Possessed of greater self-belief. No longer in awe of a player from whom he had never previously taken a set. He felt he could win, but also knew he would need to match the Spaniard’s intensity.
Tiafoe, 24, did that and a good deal more on Monday evening in New York, achieving the finest victory of his career as he upset Nadal 6-4, 4-6, 6-4, 6-3 to reach his second major quarter-final, in the process consigning the Spaniard to his first grand slam defeat of the season.
A poignant moment followed as Tiafoe, who sobbed uncontrollably in the aftermath of victory, was interviewed on court by James Blake – a man who knows what it is to defeat Nadal in this stadium, having done so himself in 2005.
“I can’t believe it,” said Tiafoe, who will play Andrey Rublev next after the Russian defeated Cameron Norrie in straight sets. “He’s definitely one of the greatest of all time. I played unbelievable tennis today. I really don’t know what happened.”
For once, there were no miracles for Nadal. For once, he was unable to come into a grand slam with minimal preparation and play his way into form, mounting a gloriously improbable comeback from injury, as he had done in Melbourne and Paris.
Only Nadal will know how far along the road he is with his recovery from the abdominal injury he suffered at Wimbledon, which forced him to withdraw before his semi-final against Nick Kyrgios. What is certain is that he has been below his best in New York over the past week, dropping sets against Rinky Hijikata and Fabio Fognini in the opening two rounds and playing with an adjusted service motion to take the stress off his abdominal area.
There were no excuses from the Spaniard afterwards. Nadal denied reports that he received treatment on an injury after leaving the court for seven minutes at the end of the first set, explaining that he was simply having more strapping applied to his wrists in an effort to keep the sweat off his hands in the suffocating humidity. Tiafoe, he insisted, was simply the better player on the day.
“I was not able to hold a high level of tennis for a long time, I was not enough quick in my movement,” said Nadal, a four-time champion in New York, after his first defeat of the season at a major. “He was able to take the ball too many times very early, so I was not able to push him back
“I don’t think I pushed him enough to create him the doubts that I need to create… I need to analyse why I was not able to create the damage that normally I do.”
Nadal, who was broken in the seventh game of the match, seemed peculiarly wedded to the tactic of hammering his second serve, an approach that led to nine double faults. Yet, having levelled the match after a poor service game from Tiafoe at the end of the second set, he began to play some of his best tennis of the afternoon before the American reasserted control with his huge serving and withering power off the ground.
“It’s so emotional, I can’t believe how well I did,” said Tiafoe. “To be able to beat Rafa, I never thought in my career I would beat a top-three [player], so it’s something to tell the kids, the grandkids one day.”