With defending champion Novak Djokovic’s upset loss to Alexei Popyrin in the third round at the 2024 US Open came the sudden and sobering realization that, for the first season in more than two decades, no one named Djokovic, Federer or Nadal would be laying claim to any of the four most cherished trophies in the sport.
Throw in untimely exits from 2022 titlist Carlos Alcaraz, Stefanos Tsitsipas, Hubert Hurkacz and Holger Rune, and it was hard to ignore the opportunities afoot—though Tommy Paul might beg to differ.
“Different parts of the draw have opened up, but mine has not,” grinned the American ahead of a 7-6(3), 7-6(5), 6-1 loss to top seed and world No. 1 Jannik Sinner in the Round of 16.
But, again, there was undeniably some newfound belief amongst those still standing in Week 2.
“Alcaraz is out, I’m out, some big upsets. The draw is opening up,” said Djokovic. “Obviously, Sinner is the main favorite, but then [Frances] Tiafoe is there, as well as American favorite [Taylor] Fritz. Anybody can take it.”
“It’s impossible to not know that there’s more of an opportunity with how the draw has opened up,” observed Fritz following his fourth-round, 3-6, 6-4, 6-3, 6-2 win over 2022 runner-up Casper Ruud, yet another roadblock cleared.
Fritz’s longtime coach, former ATP Tour pro Michael Russell, of course, had picked up on the trend, too.
“It helps a lot, because those three—the Big Three—they dominated the sport for decades,” said Russell. “So now, you know, they’re stepping away. All of a sudden there’s new blood in the mix. All of a sudden you have new champions. All the guys see that: ‘Hey, it could be my turn now.’ Not to say they can’t beat those guys, but they really did dominate to the point where they were never losing matches. Now you’ve got new winners, new guys coming up, and all these guys—including Taylor—they think they can win Grand Slams.”
That kind of hope, that kind of belief, can be contagious.
“There’s a window, there’s an opening in the game,” said Tiafoe.
As the tennis gods would have it, longtime friends Fritz and Tiafoe—both 26, both of whom turned pro in 2015, and both of whom have spent time in the Top 10—will collide in the semifinals under the Friday night lights of Arthur Ashe Stadium. It will be their eighth encounter at the ATP Tour level. (Fritz holds a 6-1 advantage.) For Tiafoe, it will be his second major semifinal. The Marylander also reached the last four in New York in 2022, the year he dispatched Rafael Nadal in the Round of 16. For Fritz, it will be his first, having finally gotten over the quarterfinal hump at the Grand Slams via a 7-6(2), 3-6, 6-4, 7-6(3) win over Alexander Zverev.
“[He made] two quarterfinals this year, a quarterfinal last year, so he’s been on the cusp of getting to the semifinals, and then to do it here at the US Open, I mean, it’s fantastic,” said Russell.
“It’s a combination of being in the situation, [having] the experience, and also not having the complacency,” he continued. “Sometimes you come into tournaments and you think, ‘Oh, quarterfinals is a great result’—which it is—but at the end of the day you show up at tournaments to win tournaments. It’s the constant recurring theme and verbiage that we always use: that every day it’s a new match, new opponent. As soon as you step on the court, you’re on an equal playing field, and you can’t let the pressure and the self-expectation get into your own head.”
Now two American men will face off in a Grand Slam semifinal for the first time since the 2005 US Open, when Robby Ginepri went head-to-head with Andre Agassi. Regardless of who comes out on top, we’re guaranteed to have an American man vying for a major singles title for the first time in a decade-and-a-half, dating back to Wimbledon in 2009, when Andy Roddick was edged by Federer in a 16-14-in-the-fifth epic.
“There’s always a lot of talk of the next American to win a Grand Slam,” said Russell. “Pretty far from it still, but, you know, one step closer.”
