Each friend represents a world in us, a world possibly not born until they arrive, and it is only by this meeting that a new world is born. - Anaïs Nin
What the friendship between Americans and fellow Top 20 tennis players Ben Shelton and Frances Tiafoe lacks in longevity, it makes up for in so many tangible and impactful ways.
The power both exert from the baseline with mere flicks of the wrist: a gravitational pull and charisma both possess when taking the court, easily drawing tennis fans in for days, weeks, years, and, possibly, lifetimes; and, as we now know after both met the press after their respective wins in the second round, their juvenile behavior?
“[He’s ] just about as immature as I am,” a smiling Tiafoe said about Shelton on Wednesday.
All joking aside, a new world of endless possibilities continues to spring every time Tiafoe and Shelton take the court, with the third career meeting between the two scheduled for a time and setting fit for the matinée idols they are quickly becoming: Friday afternoon, inside of the biggest tennis-only venue in the world, Arthur Ashe Stadium, at the final Grand Slam of the year, the US Open.
Each of the two previous get-togethers were historic, from the first time two Black men met in the quarterfinal stage of a major at last year’s US Open to the first all-Black final on the ATP Tour this past April in Houston. But every match-up after Friday will continue to be filled with history and untapped potential for societal sea change, too.
American men’s tennis is in its best shape in a couple of generations In large part due to both men, who make up two-fifths of the Yanks who appear in the Top 20 of the ATP rankings. But, similar to the group of American men years past who regularly appeared in the upper echelon of the tennis world—names that included Courier, Chang, and Martin in the 1990s and Gerulaitis, Tanner and Solomon in the late 1970s and early 1980s—it was Andre Agassi and Pete Sampras who captured hearts and imaginations with every meeting. It was John McEnroe and Jimmy Connors, their fiery personalities mixed in with their contrasting lefty games, who did their part in filling seats, gripping TV audiences and bringing new faces to tennis during the beginning of the “Super Saturday” era.
From Andre’s “image is everything” — and a triumphant second act in the sport — to Pistol Pete’s picture-perfect serve shooting him to the top of the career Grand Slam men’s singles titles list for a time.
From a fist-pumping 39-year-old making a magical, final Grand Slam run to, "You cannot be serious!"
All of those moments above are indelible, iconic and uniquely American. If their tennis trajectories remain ascendant, Tiafoe and Shelton are next in line to change the sport for good … stateside and beyond.
“Frances is probably the best in our sport in the recent years on the American side of reaching that casual sports fan, being the guy that gets on ESPN or mainstream media,” the 20-year-old Shelton said of Tiafoe after the former’s second-round win on Wednesday.
“He's got all the hooper friends who come to his matches, travel to see him play, the music industry. I think that he's done a great job of kind of putting American tennis on the map in different sports and kind of making it cool again.”
Shelton used the championship stage to share a similar sentiment, using part of his acceptance speech after his win over the 26-year-old Maryland native in Houston to amplify the message of Tiafoe's generational impact.
“You've been such an inspiration to kids, people of color in our sport, just an amazing representation,” Shelton said after his three-set win in that match. “You've been that guy to always put on for us and always be selfless, thinking about others, kids younger than you. So thanks for everything that you do for our sport and people who look like you and me.”
It’s also a case of iron sharpening iron when the two friends face, and Tiafoe, who has had mixed results on tour since his matchup against Shelton in the Lone Star State, used what was the highlight of his year before his run to the final in Cincinnati earlier this month to say that his shared success with Shelton could be a springboard to better outcomes.
“It's been a really tough year and playing a final has been really great,” Tiafoe said, describing his runner-up placement in Houston, later adding, “It would have been cool to get [career title] number four. We'll get that soon enough. Let's really build on this and let's have a good '24.”
It will only be matchup No. 3 between Tiafoe and Shelton, with the winner on Friday potentially facing 24-time Grand Slam champion Novak Djokovic on Sunday. But whether the two American supernovas are not able to play against each other 34 times (like both Agassi-Sampras and McEnroe-Connors did in their pro careers) or, somehow, surpass that total, the possibilities of changing the world of tennis—and the people who will make up future generations of players and fans—are endless.
