WHAT HAPPENED: Ahead of his fourth-round match against Rafael Nadal, the all-time tour leader in majors, Frances Tiafoe talked a big game. Though he hadn’t won a set against Nadal in the two matches they played three years ago, the American warned: “I'm definitely a different player from 2019, playing much better. Now I believe I can beat him.”
“I’m definitely going to come after him,” proclaimed Tiafoe.
Tiafoe backed up the bravado with brave, brilliant tennis to upset the all-time slam champion and deny Nadal the opportunity to continue his campaign to win a record 23rd major.
Tiafoe surely played the match of his life, smacking 18 aces and even getting the better of Nadal from the back court for most of the match. Tiafoe confidently hugged the baseline and slugged groundstrokes. The American blasted 49 winners, and his level never dipped over the 3 hours and 34 minutes.
In the crucial fourth set, Nadal jumped out to a 3-1 lead, seemingly on his way to forcing a fifth. But Tiafoe responded with some of his most aggressive, determined tennis, breaking Nadal twice, including in the final game, to score the monumental upset.
Tiafoe embraced Nadal at net and then held his face in his hands in disbelief. A deafening roar overtook Arthur Ashe Stadium.
“I played unbelievable tennis today. I really don’t even know what happened,” exclaimed Tiafoe on court after the win.
“At 4-3, when I went up 40-love, my legs were like cement,” the American continued.
On a brutally steamy afternoon—an enormous challenge for the Spaniard, a prodigious sweater—and in his first day match of the Open, Nadal seemed to feel the heat: both the oppressive conditions and the brutal shots flying off of Tiafoe’s racquet. Nadal was never able to settle into his customary rhythm of long, enervating rallies.
“I was not able to hold a high level of tennis for a long time,” Nadal said in his post-match press conference. “I was not able to create the damage that normally I used to do.”
“We can't find excuses,” reasoned Nadal. “At the end the only thing that happened is we went to the fourth round of the US Open and I faced a player that was better than me. And that's why I am having a plane back home.”
Right off the bat in the first set, Tiafoe, 24, established that he had come to play. He earned his first break of serve in the six sets he’d played against Nadal to snatch a 4-3 lead. Tiafoe served out the set with a dose of swagger—three swatted winners—to claim his first set over the Spaniard.
Nadal turned things around in the second set. At 4-5, 15-all on the American’s serve, Nadal raced wide and hit a lunging, stabbed forehand squash shot that landed on the outside of the line, right at Tiafoe’s feet. The No. 22 seed stood and stared at the line, dumbstruck. Nadal seized the moment. His first break points all afternoon were also set points, and on the second one, Tiafoe double-faulted to deadlock the score at one set all.
Nadal began the third set looking much more relaxed, taking control of rallies. Just when it looked as though Tiafoe might be losing a little steam, though, the American stepped up his play. At 3-3 on Nadal’s serve, Tiafoe smoked a two-handed backhand down the line to break Nadal’s serve and take the lead for good.
Tiafoe played the game of his life to serve out the third set, with a smacked service winner, two laced forehand winners, and an ace to send Nadal back to the locker room with his back to the wall, needing a five-setter to pull out the victory.
Nadal has mustered glory when down two sets on four occasions, but never in New York. On Monday, the Mallorcan came up short again.
For Frances Tiafoe, the day was like none he’d ever experienced.
“I felt like the world stopped,” he said later in his press conference, describing the moment he won. “I couldn't hear anything for a minute. Even shaking his hand, I don't even know what I said to him. It was such a blur.
“I've never felt something like that in my life, honestly.”
WHAT IT MEANS: Tiafoe will meet the No. 9 Andrey Rublev, a straight-sets victor earlier today over Cameron Norrie of Great Britain.
Nadal had not lost a match at a major this year (he won the Australian Open and French Opens, but was forced to retire before the semifinal at Wimbledon). Nadal had won 11 matches in a row in Flushing Meadows, dating back to 2019 (he did not play here in 2020 or 2021). Nadal was vying for a record-tying fifth US Open crown and 23rd major title overall. He finishes the year with two majors.
Tiafoe became the youngest American to make the quarters at Flushing Meadows since Andy Roddick in 2006. The Marylander equals his previous best performance in a Slam, reaching the Australian Open quarterfinal in 2019—where he lost to Nadal.
MATCH POINT: Nadal was also the No. 2 seed when he was upset at the US Open by another American, James Blake, back in 2005—17 years ago!
Tiafoe is the first American to beat Nadal at a Grand Slam since Blake, and only the third American overall to achieve that feat (Roddick, 2004 US Open).
