NEW YORK — Frances Tiafoe loves the spotlight. Loves interacting with a crowd. Loves the electricity of being an American at the U.S. 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 U.S. 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.
