The greatest run by an American men's tennis player in 16 years at the U.S. Open has ended. Frances Tiafoe, the 24-year-old whose remarkable tournament included a win over Rafael Nadal, lost to a different Spaniard Friday: 19-year-old Carlos Alcaraz.
Tiafoe showed tremendous heart and toughness in this semifinal, continually battling at moments when it appeared Alcaraz was on the verge of running away with it. But mostly, this semifinal was about the technical brilliance and unshakable nerve of Alcaraz, who announced himself as the best young prospect in many years this spring when he won significant ATP titles in Miami, Barcelona and Madrid.
Reaching No. 3 in the world before this U.S. Open, Alcaraz survived five-set marathon battles with Marin Cilicto get to the semifinals and found himself in an early hole when Tiafoe sneaked away with the first set in a tiebreaker. But Tiafoe, who was 8-0 in tiebreaks during the tournament, could not sustain that high of a level over the full course of a long match. With Tiafoe serving at 2-3 in the second set, Alcaraz finally generated the first break for either player and seemed to only gain strength and energy from there. After saving a break point while trying to serve out the second set, Alcaraz ran away with the third, 6-1, losing just nine points in the process.
It seemed like the fourth set might be headed toward the same fate when Alcaraz broke right away. But Tiafoe kept battling on, retrieving that break and then doing it for a second time with some stunning shotmaking to eventually level the set at 3-3. Tiafoe’s final push, though, ran into one problem: It only served to see how deep Alcaraz could dig to come up with brilliant tennis in pressure moments. And in the end, it had to be pretty special for Alcaraz to advance.
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