Frances Tiafoe of the United States celebrates after winning a point against Grigor Dimitrov of Bulgaria during the quarterfinals of the US Open Tennis Championships in New York on Tuesday, Sept. 3, 2024. (AP Photo/Eduardo Munoz Alvarez)
NEW YORK — Frances Tiafoe and Taylor Fritz advanced to the U.S. Open semifinals with victories on Tuesday, guaranteeing the United States a male player in the title match at the country’s Grand Slam tournament for the first time in 18 years.
Tiafoe, seeded 20th, made the final four at Flushing Meadows for the second time in three years when his quarterfinal opponent Grigor Dimitrov retired due to injury in the fourth set. Tiafoe was leading 6-3, 7-6 (5), 6-3, 4-1 with the clock approaching midnight when Dimitrov retired from the match, bringing an end to an encounter that was not necessarily of the highest quality.
Article continues after this ad
“I don’t want to go on like this, but I’m happy to be moving on. Here’s another semifinal. Unbelievable,” Tiafoe said.
READ: US Open: No.1 Jannik Sinner to face Medvedev in quarterfinals
A glimpse of the uneven play from the two: Dimitrov had three set points at 6-3 in the tiebreaker. On the first, he double-faulted. On the second, he double-faulted again. On the third, Tiafoe double-faulted, giving him the set.
Article continues after this ad
Just hours earlier, Fritz had seen his higher-ranked, more experienced opponent’s last errant forehand fall away, which was quite satisfying. Fritz dropped his neon-colored racket, clenched both fists and yelled, “Let’s go!”
He gathered himself and his equipment, walked to the net for a hug with No. 4 Alexander Zverev, a two-time Grand Slam runner-up, then stepped into the center of Arthur Ashe Stadium, spread his arms and yelled again, “Come on!”
After years of climbing the rankings, becoming the top American man in tennis, coming close to breaking through in one of his sport’s four most important events, Fritz finally reached a major semifinal for the first time, beating Zverev 7-6 (2), 3-6, 6-4, 7-6 (3) on home turf.
Taylor Fritz, of the United States, reacts after defeating Alexander Zverev, of Germany, during the quarterfinals of the US Open Tennis Championships in New York, Tuesday, Sept. 3, 2024. (AP Photo/Kirsty Wigglesworth)
Fritz, the 12th-seeded 26-year-old from California, began the day with an 0-4 record in Slam quarterfinals.
Now on Friday, he will face his old friend Tiafoe, 26, of Maryland, who lost in the 2022 US Open semifinals to eventual champion Carlos Alcaraz.
Fritz holds a 6-1 edge over Tiafoe as a professional player.
READ: Jannik Sinner never gave his opponent any hope of an upset at the US Open
“This is the biggest match of my life and Taylor’s. We’ve known each other for so long. I’ve been playing against her since (the under-14 tournament),” Tiafoe said during an on-court interview. “So to play against her here … is going to be pretty cool. I know we’re two Americans, but I hope you’ll all be with me on Friday.”
The Fritz-Tiafoe match – “It could be crazy,” Fritz said before he knew who he would face next – is the first semifinal between an American men’s pair at any major tournament since 2005, when Andre Agassi beat Robby Ginepri in New York.
No American man has won a Grand Slam singles trophy since Andy Roddick won the US Open in 2003; Roddick was the last American man to reach the US Open final, losing to Roger Federer in 2006.
Dimitrov, who was seeded 9th, played five sets in the fourth round and appeared to fade in the third set against Tiafoe, grabbing his left hamstring, moving cautiously between points and serving much slower than earlier in the evening. After that set, Dimitrov was attended to by a trainer and then taken to the locker room for treatment.
He returned to the court for the start of the fourth set but could not walk properly and eventually retired. Dimitrov, 33, a Bulgarian who has played in three major semi-finals, could not explain afterward what was wrong, only saying it was a bunch of things.
“For me it’s a disappointing moment. I need to reevaluate some things,” Dimitrov said.
The other men’s quarterfinals will be played on Wednesday: No. 1 Jannik Sinner vs. No. 5 Daniil Medvedev, and No. 10 Alex de Minaur vs. No. 25 Jack Draper.
In the women’s event, US No. 13 Emma Navarro won the final six games to beat No. 26 Paula Badosa 6-2, 7-5 and reach her first Grand Slam semifinal and will face No. 2 Aryna Sabalenka.
Fritz used his usual big serve, winning 20 of 21 points when his first serve hit during the fourth set, and he also hit big forehands, but he was also dominant at the net — winning 16 of 24 points when he went forward — and returned well enough to earn 10 break points.
Even though Fritz only converted two of those break chances, it meant he constantly put pressure on Zverev, a German player who reached the finals of the US Open in 2020 and the French Open this year.
Fritz’s most recent loss came in the quarterfinals at Wimbledon in July against Lorenzo Musetti. The other three losses? Two came against 24-time Slam champion Novak Djokovic; one against 22-time Slam champion Rafael Nadal.
One of these was at last year’s US Open against Djokovic, who won the title. Last week Djokovic was knocked out in the third round; Nadal was knocked out of the tournament.
Fritz’s coach, Michael Russell, said past failures were not a topic of conversation ahead of this quarterfinal.
Your subscription could not be saved. Please try again.
Your subscription has been successful.
“It’s great that I’m in the semifinals. But my mindset is ‘I’m not done yet,'” Fritz said. “Whenever I lost in the quarterfinals, I was asked the question, ‘What do I need to do to move on?’ And I always answered the same: just keep putting myself in these situations, and I’ll get more comfortable in these situations and get better. That’s definitely what has happened now. The quarterfinals don’t feel as big to me as they have in the past.”
