Rafael Nadal loses in the quarterfinals of the US Open to Frances Tiafoe
Frances Tiafoe’s vision was blurry due to tears. In the aftermath of the last point, he was thrilled — even overwhelmed — when he realized he had broken Rafael Nadal’s 22-match Grand Slam winning streak and reached the quarterfinals of the US Open for the first time ever, ending the Spaniard’s 22-match Grand Slam winning streak on Monday.
“It felt like the world had stopped for a moment,” Tiafoe said. For a moment, I wasn’t able to hear anything.”
When Tiafoe, 24, saw that NBA superstar LeBron James had given him a shoutout on Twitter, he found himself “losing it in the locker room.”
“Bro,” Tiafoe said, “I was going crazy, bro.”.
He realized during the match at Flushing Meadows that what meant more to him than the 6-4, 4-6, 6-4, 6-3 victory over No. 2 seed Nadal in the fourth round was the fact that his parents, Constant and Alpina, were watching from the Arthur Ashe Stadium guest box.
I am looking forward to seeing them experience me beating Rafa Nadal. They have seen me have big wins, but to see me beat those Mount Rushmore guys?” said Tiafoe, who is ranked 22nd in the world.
I cannot imagine what was going through their heads during that moment. I mean, they’re going to remember today for the rest of their lives.” he added.
During the 1990s, his parents emigrated to the United States from Sierra Leone, a country in West Africa, during its civil war.
The couple ended up in Maryland, where Constant assisted in the construction of a tennis training center for juniors, and then became a maintenance man at the facility.
When Tiafoe and his twin brother, Franklin, were born in 1998, their mother, Alpina, was “a nurse working two jobs and working overtime through the night.”
As a result, the two of them spent considerable time where Dad’s job was, with rackets in hand, spending hours upon hours at his home.
I hope that one day if the dream becomes a reality, I could receive a college scholarship result of it.
In the hours following his biggest victory of the season, French Tiafoe said, “It wasn’t supposed to happen like this,” he said.
US Open 2022: Defending Champion Rafael Nadal Falls To American Frances Tiafoe In US Open Quarterfinals
He is the youngest American man to reach this stage in the US Open since Andy Roddick in 2006, but this was not a case of the crowd being favored by one side over the other.
There is no doubt that Nadal is one of the most popular players in tennis, and he heard a lot of support after the retractable roof was closed in the fourth set as the volume rose.
As of Monday’s match, Nadal was 31-2 in majors against Americans and had won 27 consecutive matches since losing to James Blake in 2005.
As Tiafoe smiled with excitement, he said, “It’s something to tell the kids, the grandkids: ‘Yeah, I beat Rafa.'”
There is no doubt that he served better than Nadal. Even more surprising was the fact that he returned better than before.
There was no sign of him losing his cool, he remained in the moment, he did not let the stakes or the opponent get to him and he kept his cool.
I can say that Nadal, 36, from Spain, had won both of their previous matches – as well as every set they had played as well.
It’s quite simple: I played a bad match, and he played a good match,” said Nadal, who has won a record 22 Grand Slam titles in his career. “At the end of the day, that’s all there is to it.”
There was a surprise in store for Tiafoe a day after he watched on TV as his pal Nick Kyrgios put on a show and eliminated Daniil Medvedev, the top seed and defending champion, from the competition.
In other words, this is the first US Open in which neither of the top two seeded men made it into the quarterfinals since 2000 when No. 1 Andre Agassi left the tournament in the second round, and No. 2 Gustavo Kuerten left in the first round.
There was a time before men’s tennis was dominated by the likes of Rafael Nadal (who has 21 Grand Slam titles) and Novak Djokovic (who has 20 Grand Slam titles).
Federer, 41, has undergone a series of operations on his right knee and last played at Wimbledon in 2021 as he has undergone a series of operations on his right knee and was not allowed to enter the United States.
Djokovic is not vaccinated against C-19 and was not allowed to enter the United States.
In fact, this is only the second major since the start of 2005 in which none of Federer, Djokovic, or Nadal has reached the quarterfinals.
There was also the 2020 US Open when Federer and Nadal did not play, and Djokovic defaulted against Pablo Carreno Busta in the round of 16 because of Federer and Nadal’s non-play.
There are now inevitable questions about whether or not their period of excellence is coming to an end.
It signifies that the years are passing by,” Nadal explained. It is the circle of life that brings us to this point.”
As a result, Tiafoe will now be facing No. 9 Andrey Rublev, who defeated No. 7, Cameron Norrie, with a score of 6-4, 6-4, 6-4 earlier Monday.
The No. 11 seed Jannik Sinner rallied from two games down in the fifth set to beat Ilya Ivashka 6-1, 5-7, 6-2, 4-6, 6-3 and ensure his place in all four Grand Slam quarterfinals this year.
Having turned 21 in August, Sinner became the youngest player since Djokovic in 2007 who reached the quarterfinals of all four Grand Slam events in a single season when he was 20 years old.
Ivashka was down 3-1 in the fifth set, but Sinner rallied to win five straight games to come out on top against the unseeded player.
There were 12 break points in the match and Sinner fought hard in the fifth set to demonstrate why she is considered a potential star in the future.
The Italian men are represented in the quarterfinals of the US Open by Sinner and Berrettini.
In the next match, Sinner faces No. 3 at Arthur Ashe Stadium in the quarterfinals. Carlos Alcaraz was the last player to make it through to the quarterfinals of one of the longest nights in Open history — including a set that lasted approximately an hour — after winning 6-4, 3-6, 6-4, 4-6, 6-3 against 2014 US Open champion Marin Cilic.
In the grueling match, which lasted 3 hours, 54 minutes and ended at 2:23 a.m., Alcaraz, who is set to end the Open ranked No. 1 in the world, was reduced to tears when he won the event, missing the record for the latest finish in the history of the Open by three minutes.
With his 19-year-old age, he would be the youngest No. 1 on the ATP Tour since 2001, and he is already the youngest man to reach the fourth round of consecutive US Opens since Pete Sampras in 1989 and 1990.
In response to a question asked on the court about how he managed to win, Alcaraz said, “Honestly, I don’t know,”. There were some pretty tough times at the beginning of the fifth set when we were down by a break.
“Marin was playing at an unbelievable level. There are times when I doubt myself, but I always believe in myself.
In Arthur Ashe, of course, there was a crazy amount of support today. We would not have been able to win this match tonight without your support, so we would like to thank you so much for your support.
In my opinion, I would say that 100% of the energy that I put into the fifth set was due to you. It was an unbelievable amount of energy.”
In the men’s draw, Zilic was the last remaining major champion. This is just the third time in the Open era that an Open-era men’s major tournament has a quarterfinal lineup that doesn’t include an ex-champion, according to ESPN Stats & Information research.