WHAT HAPPENED: There are many players who shy away from the New York spotlight, wanting little part of the frenetic, kinetic cacophony that echoes around the grounds of the USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center in Queens.
Not Frances Tiafoe. There’s no shrinking violet in the rising American.
The 25-year-old feeds off the vibrant energy that only New York can offer, and it shows.
On Friday, inside a packed Louis Armstrong Stadium, Tiafoe rode that energy to a confident comeback victory over Frenchman Adrian Mannarino, 4-6, 6-2, 6-3, 7-6(6). With the win, he reaches the Round of 16 for the fourth consecutive year in New York, and improves to 14-3 since 2020 at the American Slam.
“You guys are incredible. You guys get so behind me,” Tiafoe told the energized Armstrong faithful after the match concluded. “You guys are right on top of me—I love this court.”
Up against the befuddling craftwork of the dangerous 35-year-old southpaw, Tiafoe needed time to dial up his best tennis. After falling behind by a break early, he knocked on the door in set one, but Mannarino saved all five break points he faced in the stanza, including three in the final game as he served it out to take the lead, 6-4.
“I think it was all perspective,” Tiafoe said. “I played one loose game there in the first, and after that I thought I was the better player, even though I lost the first set. I had a ton of break points, and I was definitely finding my rhythm. I just used that as confidence and kept going.”
As Tiafoe pushed forward, Mannarino’s hold on the match slipped.
Once Tiafoe converted his seventh break point of the match in the sixth game of the second set for 4-2, the floodgates flew temporarily open.
Six consecutive games later, Tiafoe had wrestled the advantage from the world No. 35, as he led 3-0 in the third and soon confidently closed out the set with his 13th of 15 aces on the day.
The fourth set looked to be headed in the same direction, but Mannarino had other ideas. He lifted his game and rallied from a break down to a break up, taking three games on the trot to lead, 4-2.
Tiafoe could have wilted but instead rallied once again.
“I was super mad at that break in the fourth when I gave it back and then made it really complicated for myself at the end,” he said.
Faced with adversity, Tiafoe dug deep to find the solutions and eventually broke back to take things to a tiebreak. He then conjured more magic, winning his ninth consecutive US Open tiebreak (dating back to last year), converting his second match point to seal his 16th career US Open victory in two hours, 55 minutes.
“He’s so annoying to play,” Tiafoe admitted of Mannarino after the match, as he talked about the challenge of facing the beguiling lefty. “He makes you create, he makes you feel like you have to overplay, he defends really well—he’s super tough and obviously has a really great lefty serve. I’m happy the match is over and I won.”
WHAT IT MEANS: Tiafoe started his US Open career with a 2-5 record in his first five appearances. Since then, he has won 14 of 17 as he has embraced the biggest stage in all of tennis. He will face either Rinky Hijikata of Australia or Zhang Zhizhen of China in the Round of 16.
MATCH POINT: Tiafoe, who was a semifinalist last year in New York, has become the first American man to reach the US Open Round of 16 four consecutive times since Andre Agassi achieved the feat from 2002-05.
