NEW YORK: Flushing Meadows have found a new darling in Frances Tiafoe, who has been setting up a potential US Open result that just days ago seemed impossible – an American hoisting the trophy.
Since Andy Roddick in 2003 there hasn’t been a title in the USA, the golden years of Pete Sampras and Andre Agassi are long gone.
But no sooner had Serena Williams said goodbye than Tiafoe emerged to give US fans some hope and caused the biggest upset of the tournament yet by defeating second seed Rafa Nadal to claim two wins before the final.
“Slams, crazy things can happen. Especially here in New York,” said the 24-year-old from Hyattsville, Maryland, whose humble beginnings in tennis are already legendary.
His parents moved to the United States in the 1990s before the civil war in Sierra Leone and his father worked as an on-site janitor at the Junior Tennis Champions Center in College Park while his mother, a nurse, worked two jobs.
“Being involved with tennis kind of made us want to get out of our neighborhood,” Tiafoe said.
His father hoped tennis could help provide university scholarship funds – unaware that his son would one day captivate the crowds at the stadium named after one of the sport’s great pioneers, Arthur Ashe.
“It shouldn’t be like that,” said Tiafoe, whose last Grand Slam quarterfinal came at the Australian Open in 2019.
Tiafoe, who is friends with 40-year-old Williams and grew up around the American great and her sister Venus, wore a hoodie Monday that listed each of her 23 Grand Slam titles.
Now, win or lose, he continues her legacy of inspiring the next generation of black athletes in tennis.
“When I was younger, I told my dad that I could be a professional tennis player because I see her and Venus fight each other,” he told ESPN.
“I said damn that’s two people who look like me and I can go and do that. That’s incredible.”
His next hurdle to the Grand Slam final is ninth seeded Andrey Rublev, whom he faces in the last eight on Wednesday. The Russian beat him at Indian Wells earlier this year.
Rublev told reporters he was all too aware of the American’s appeal to the crowd at Flushing Meadows after Tiafoe roped in fans to help him win their third-round meeting a year ago.
“(He’s) a tough player,” Rublev said. “He’s going to try to use the energy, the crowd, to pump more, to play better tennis… with him I have to wait for my moment and capitalize on it.”