24-year-old Frances Tiafoe put on the performance of his career on Monday at the U.S. Open, with a 6-4, 4-6, 6-4, 6-3 upset win over 22-time Grand Slam champion Rafael Nadal in the fourth round.
Tiafoe, who has just one ATP title on his résumé, advances to the quarterfinals of a major for just the second time in his career and first since the 2019 Australian Open. He faces No. 9 seed Andrey Rublev in the quarterfinals on Wednesday.
With Nadal’s exit following the defeat of No. 1 seed and defending champion Daniil Medvedev on Sunday, the men’s tournament is officially wide open. The favorite for the title may well be Nick Kyrgios, who made the Wimbledon final earlier this year and knocked Medvedev out of the tournament.
An American hasn’t won the U.S. Open since Andy Roddick in 2003. Tiafoe, ranked 26th in the world, has an amazing backstory — his parents won a green card lottery to immigrate to the U.S. from Sierra Leone, West Africa, and Tiafoe learned tennis at the College Park, Md., facility where his father was a custodian.
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