US Open: Tiafoe beats Hijikata, sets Shelton quarter-final

American Frances Tiafoe, the No 10 seed, won against Australian wildcard Rinky Hijikata 6-4, 6-1, 6-4 to move set a US Open quarter-final against compatriot Ben Shelton.

It was a solid performance from Tiafoe, who was expected to win against the world No 110, and did exactly that.

The American sent down 15 aces, making 27 winners total to 22 unforced errors. He was broken twice, however mitigated that by breaking Hijikata seven times himself in the straight sets victory.

All eyes on all-American quarter-final

The real story coming out of Tiafoe vs Hijikata is the match up that it creates in the quarter-finals.

Tenth seed Tiafoe, who returns to the US Open quarter-finals for the second year in a row, will face off against his younger compatriot, 20-year-old Ben Shelton, who overcame No 14 seed Tommy Paul earlier today.

The pair both play a high-energy, entertaining brand of tennis, and have big personalities that get the crowds behind them. No doubt this all-American quarter-final will light up Arthur Ashe on Tuesday night, with the prize for the winner being a likely semi-final against Novak Djokovic.

Following his win, Tiafoe immediately addressed the elephant in the room about his clash against Shelton:

“It’s a big match. He’s Bugs Bunny. He’s got crazy endless energy. He’s gonna come after me. I’m gonna come after him. It’s gonna be a great battle. We’re gonna compete really hard. I plan on being in the semi-finals.”

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Ahead of his round of 16 victory over Hijikata, Tiafoe beat wildcard Learner Tien (6-2, 7-5, 6-1), Austrian Sebastian Ofner (6-3, 6-1, 6-4) and Frenchman Adrian Mannarino, the No 22 seed (4-6, 6-2, 6-3, 7-6 (6)) in the previous rounds of the Flushing Meadows tournament.

Hijikata, on the other hand, defeated Russian Pavel Kotov (7-5, 5-7, 6-3, 7-5), Hungarian Marton Fucsovics (6-1, 6-2, 6-1) and China’s Zhizhen Zhang (6-3, 6-3, 4-6, 6-3).

New York (Grand Slam), other last 16 results (USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center, hard, USD 44.700.000, most recent results first):

• Alexander Zverev vs. Jannik Sinner
• Daniil Medvedev vs. Alex De Minaur
• Carlos Alcaraz vs. Matteo Arnaldi
• Jack Draper vs. Andrey Rublev
• Borna Gojo vs. Novak Djokovic
• Dominic Stricker vs. Taylor Fritz
• Ben Shelton beat Tommy Paul (14): 6-4, 6-3, 4-6, 6-4