US Open 2022 – Can Frances Tiafoe be the primary American man to win the US Open in almost 20 years?

NEW YORK — The wristband on Frances Tiafoe‘s racket hand reads “Consider. Why Not Me.”

After defeating Rafael Nadal and Andrey Rublev in entrance of packed stadiums, many extra have begun to imagine that his time may be now.

Maybe Tiafoe would be the one who ends the 19-year drought for a U.S. males’s singles champion on the US Open.

Watching him play is a delight: the way in which he sprints again after changeovers, his eye-catching model of play, the fantastic array of pictures, his ruthless serve. And even the sheer carnage of the scene behind his chair on the finish of the match, garments and sneakers strewn all over.

“My participant financial institution is diabolical. Yeah, it is getting the job accomplished, so who cares proper now?” Tiafoe mentioned after his match in opposition to Rublev.

And all that is all whipped up together with his unimaginable backstory and infectious character.

“Hopefully there will be a film about him at some point,” his coach Wayne Ferreira mentioned after the win over Rublev.

Born in Maryland, the 24-year-old is the son of immigrants who moved to the U.S. within the Nineties from war-torn Sierra Leone. His dad, Fixed, labored on the development of the Junior Tennis Champions Middle in Washington, D.C. Fixed ended up with the job of caretaker, and was given a room there the place his boys — Frances and his twin brother, Franklin — would sleep some nights as their mother, Alphina, labored double shifts as a nurse.

“It wasn’t alleged to be something like this,” Tiafoe mentioned earlier this week. “As soon as we received within the sport of tennis, my dad was like, ‘It could be superior for those who guys can use this as a full scholarship to highschool.’ We could not afford a college, so use the sport of tennis.”

9 years in the past in 2013 he received the Orange Bowl — a junior match that Roger Federer, Jim Courier, John McEnroe and Bjorn Borg have all received as effectively.

One other winner there was Andy Roddick — the person whose footsteps Tiafoe is now treading in at Flushing Meadows. Tiafoe’s win over Rublev made him the youngest American semifinalist since Roddick in 2006. Roddick was additionally the final American man to win the US Open, in 2003.

However that is Tiafoe’s path, and he is doing it his means, motivated by the desires of success he had as a teenager. He calls the large three in males’s tennis the “Mount Rushmore guys,” but it surely was Serena and Venus Williams who caught his creativeness and have remained his idols. He has worn a Serena GOAT hoodie to stroll on to the court docket in his previous two matches.

“At the moment watching Serena and Venus [Williams] play finals of Grand Slams, after I was tremendous younger, I used to be like, ‘How cool would it not be to play Wimbledon, to play on Arthur Ashe and stuff like that?'” Tiafoe mentioned after his win in opposition to Nadal. Now he is the primary Black American man to achieve the US Open semifinals since Ashe himself did in 1972.

And when he takes middle stage on Friday to play Carlos Alcaraz, he’ll have the whole place behind him.

This can be a run that has lengthy been hinted at however by no means realized. His greatest end at an ATP 1000 match was a quarterfinal again in 2019 at Miami. His earlier greatest run at a Grand Slam was the quarterfinals of the Australian Open that very same yr. There was the power, however the outcomes weren’t matching up.

“We now have been working quite a bit within the final couple of months on the psychological facet, about making an attempt to cope with the large, necessary conditions,” Ferreira mentioned after the win over Rublev. “He is achieved them exceptionally effectively. The ball hanging has been good for the final couple of months. That is been one thing that is been good for us. It is simply ending off matches.”

Ferreira additionally referenced how they labored on his vitamin. “He preferred plenty of sweet and goodies and cookies,” Ferreira mentioned. “He’d eat at uncommon occasions. He missed breakfast quite a bit. Did not actually have a great set of occasions on when to eat earlier than matches, what to eat after matches. You want just a little steerage on that facet, and he is accomplished effectively on that facet of it.”

Right here on the US Open, Tiafoe hasn’t eaten out in a restaurant as soon as, as a substitute ordering in from Morton’s Steakhouse.

They’ve changed their training so the observe periods are shorter, cell phones are banned and Tiafoe runs with out music to hone his focus.

“I feel throughout that point the cameras weren’t on me, consideration wasn’t on me, I used to be capable of simply form of get higher and do my very own factor,” Tiafoe mentioned after Rublev match. “I finished making an attempt to be the man. Like when issues have been going to occur, it was going to occur. I used to be high quality with it. I used to be comfy with myself. Yeah, now, it is all come into fruition.”

Tiafoe’s US Open match began out on Courtroom 17 with a first-round win over Marcos Giron. Six days later — having seen off Jason Kubler and Diego Schwartzman — he was on Ashe taking part in Nadal.

After 3 hours and 34 minutes, he bested him. That defeat had wider ramifications for the boys’s title, with Karen Khachanov saying after his win over Nick Kyrgios that Tiafoe’s triumph meant the remainder noticed it as an “alternative to take the trophy” with one of many GOATs dispatched.

Nevertheless it’s one factor seeing the favourite being knocked out, and one other being the participant who managed it and processing every part that comes with it.

One other one in all his wristbands reads “Be Your Personal GOAT.” That win over Nadal was a milestone second for Tiafoe, after which after the match, he noticed a tweet from LeBron James praising him. “Man, I used to be shedding it within the locker room,” Tiafoe mentioned. “Bro, I used to be going loopy. Yeah, I imply, that is my man. So to see him publish that, I used to be like, ‘Do I retweet it as quickly as he despatched it?’ I used to be like, ‘You realize what, I will be cool and act like I did not see it after which retweet it three hours later.'”

Tiafoe had a sleepless evening after that match.

“The problem is Rafa has been one of the best participant he is ever overwhelmed,” Ferreira mentioned. “To go from that and play two days later is all the time very, very tough. So we tried actually arduous to get him to benefit from the second however attempt to transfer on.”

They centered on residing within the second. After the win over Rublev, Tiafoe raised his palms to the closed roof of Ashe, did just a little dance after which went over to present Bradley Beal, one other one in all his basketball heroes, a hug. Beal, who performs for Tiafoe’s hometown Washington Wizards, was entrance row in one of the best seat in the home to see America’s sports activities star.

Tiafoe then regarded over to his field. He noticed his father standing immobile in shocked pleasure, and as they made eye contact, Fixed raised his palms to the roof, Alphina hugged his girlfriend Ayan Broomfield, whereas everyone and anyone stood in collective joyful disbelief with Ferreira within the midst of it.

However in opposition to Rublev, all of it got here collectively for Tiafoe. “It was actually a laughable tiebreaker,” Tiafoe mentioned. “You may’t make that up.”

With Tiafoe simply two matches away from tennis immortality, there is not any hazard of getting carried away. “There may be plenty of nice gamers that have not had an excellent profession by not profitable something,” Ferreira mentioned. “For me it is about profitable. I feel he must win. That comes right down to success by profitable and victory.”

Tiafoe will once more attempt to press the reset button forward of the semifinal. He would not need to be one other story of a near-miss.

“I like to indicate the world what I can do,” Tiafoe mentioned. “Then it makes me really feel good when individuals admire how arduous you are making an attempt on the market and admire good tennis, particularly the place I got here from. To see how many individuals I can get behind me. Means quite a bit.

“In case you are actually, actually enthusiastic about one thing, I feel something can occur, and being simply obsessive about it. Proper now I am simply actually obsessive about tennis, and I need to see how far I can go together with this factor.”

He’ll take heed to his mom’s recommendation, which she provides him earlier than each match — play the person, not the identify. And he’ll keep in mind the motto on his wrist.

“[I] have a look at that: Yeah, why not me? You place the time in, so why not me? Consider in your self, it is so massive,” Tiafoe mentioned. “It’s a must to imagine in your self earlier than anyone else does.”