The electric All-American semifinal match Friday night at Arthur Ashe Stadium guaranteed that either Taylor Fritz or Frances Tiafoe would reach the finals of a Grand Slam tournament for the first time.
It also guaranteed that one of them had to be eliminated for their fellow countryman to advance to face No. 1 seed Jannik Sinner on Sunday for the U.S. Open championship.
The U.S. native to be knocked out of the tournament was the 20th-seeded Tiafoe, who blew a 2-1 lead and fell in five sets to Fritz to end what had been an impressive push for the first major title of his career.
“Oh, man. It’s tough. Really, really tough to swallow. This one’s gonna hurt bad,” the 26-year-old Tiafoe said. “I thought I was the better player, for sure, tonight.
“But you got to tip your hat to Taylor. He stayed with it, he competed, he deserved it tonight. All the best to him in the final.”
Fritz, who improved to 7-1 in his career against Tiafoe, jumped out to a 3-0 lead before the night session crowd had fully taken its seats, including a break on his opponent’s first service game.
But Fritz dropped the next five games, including twice on his serve before Tiafoe took the opening set, 6-4. A bad Fritz mishit on set point sailed over Tiafoe’s head and into the front rows of seats beyond the baseline.
The 6-foot-5 Fritz only lost one of 23 points on his serve to finish the second set, which he took 7-5 to even the match.
But Tiafoe ended that run quickly with a break in the initial game of the third en route to a 6-4 decision and 2-1 lead.
Tiafoe appeared headed for no worse than a fourth-set tiebreaker with a chance to advance, but down 5-4, he double-faulted twice, flubbed one backhand and buried a drop shot into the net to allow Fritz to force a decisive fifth set.
“Ultimately it was a great night, to have two Americans out there battling,” Tiafoe said. “In the fourth [set], I don’t know, just had some in-and-out cramps. I felt like my body just kind of shut down on me.”
Tiafoe’s suddenly wonky serve continued to betray him from there with two more double-faults in allowing Fritz to break twice for a 4-0 lead in the fifth en route to a 6-1 closeout.
“Obviously I was just trying to give it one last shot, right? It was the fifth set of a semis of a Slam, try to give it everything you got,” Tiafoe said. “Sometimes it’s not meant to be.”
