Tiafoe Lights Up Ashe, Topples Popyrin to Reach Third Consecutive US Open Quarterfinal

By Chris Oddo | @TheFanChild | Sunday September 1, 2024

New York—Again within the 1970’s there was a baseball participant by the identify of Reginald Martinez Jackson that introduced New York Metropolis to life round this time of 12 months – he glided by the identify Mr. October as a result of that’s when baseball’s world collection was performed.

This 12 months on the US Open, Frances Tiafoe hopes to be Mr. September.

Tiafoe took the subsequent step in his bid to make a career-best US Open efficiency on Sunday night time in Arthur Ashe Stadium, defeating Australia’s Alexei Popyrin, 6-4, 7-6(3), 2-6, 6-3, to succeed in his third consecutive quarterfinal in Flushing Meadows.

“I at all times dreamt about taking part in on this court docket [since I was] a child,” an emotional Tiafoe advised Chris Eubanks in his post-match interview. “I used to hit towards the wall and needed to compete on this court docket.

“Seeing the Williams sisters win titles right here, seeing Roger win right here 1,000,000 occasions, I used to be like ‘I simply wish to play on this court docket’. It is so iconic, clearly named after Arthur Ashe, so I needed to be part of that. I believe it brings out one of the best of me.”

It is arduous to argue with him. Tiafoe has now gained 13 of his final 15 on the US Open, and was coming off an emphatic five-set win over Ben Shelton on Friday in Ashe.

Tiafoe will face Grigor Dimitrov, who defeated Andrey Rublev in 5 units on Sunday afternoon, for a spot within the semifinals. The 33-year-old Bulgarian leads the pair’s head-to-head 3-1, however they’ve break up their final two conferences, which had been their solely two conferences on the majors.

“Clearly he is so proficient. He is been some of the proficient gamers for a really, very very long time,” Tiafoe stated. “He is taking part in nice within the later phases of his profession and he is beginning to discover nice kind once more. So it will be actually, actually robust. He can hit all of the pictures. I’ll make him battle for it and earn it and I am certain he’s, too. I hope you guys are with me there as nicely.”

The 26-year-old rode the frenzy of assist he acquired from a packed Sunday night time crowd and capitalized within the clutch to take a two units to like lead over the person who had taken out four-time champion Novak Djokovic in third-round motion two nights in the past.

After taking the opening set, Tiafoe rallied from triple set level down with Popyrin serving at 5-3 within the second, finally breaking to get again on serve. He finally gained the set with a wonderfully performed tiebreak, as ticket holders and followers exterior watching the massive screens cheered on the high of their lungs.

Popyrin, who produced 55 winners together with his breathtaking energy, hit again to take the third set on the power of two breaks, but it surely was the Twentieth-seeded American who scored the one break within the fourth set. Tiafoe was made to work for it as Popyrin compelled a break level whereas Tiafoe served for the match within the waning moments of set 4, however the American held his floor and closed out the match three factors later.

Popyrin will rue the forehand he missed on his break level, he had room to slip a passing shot previous Tiafoe however netted a forehand. Tiafoe fired a improbable forehand winner to shut out the match two factors later as the group erupted.

Along with his win Tiafoe joins former US Open champions Andre Agassi, Andy Roddick and Pete Sampras as the one American males to contest three or extra US Open quarterfinals since 2000.

Tiafoe saved six of 9 break factors and completed with 14 aces, 44 winners and 20 unforced errors.