On September 5th, specifically at the US Open, Frances Tiafoe accomplished one of the most important and significant feats of his career. The American tennis player has in fact defeated Rafael Nadal in the round of 16 in four sets and obtained his first victory against one of the Big 3 experts.
Tiafoe had in fact lost the previous six matches, three against Roger Federer, two with Nadal and one with Novak Djokovic, collecting only three sets. The American, on the strength of his success with the Majorcan, then reached the semifinals in Flushing Meadows and succumbed in the fifth set to Carlos Alcaraz, later winner of the tournament and current leader of the ATP ranking.
Tiafoe remembers the victory against Rafael Nadal and surprises everyone
Recalling her amazing experience at the US Open in an interview with the ATP Tennis Radio podcast, Tiafoe said: “I think I’ve learned that you always have more in your tank than you think you have.
I also realized that I can play equal against great tennis players day in and day out. Beating Rafael Nadal at the US Open was great, but playing the way I did against Andrey Rublev in the next game was a big growth for me.
It was more important than winning against Nadal.” Tiafoe failed to clinch the first title of his 2022 lei in Tokyo, where he lost in the final to one of the best versions of Taylor Fritz. “He just played well. He played better on the important points, he was very aggressive unlike me.
He didn’t make a mistake when he counted. It was a close match and I didn’t play the break points correctly.” Tiafoe has decided not to take part in any tournament this week and will return directly to the pitch in Stockholm.
In Sweden he will try to win his second career title and beat the competition of the likes of Cameron Norrie, Fritz, Alex de Minaur, Grigor Dimitrov and Denis Shapovalov.
