US Open: Tiafoe avenges 2023 loss to Shelton with grand effort in third round
Frances Tiafoe beat Ben Shelton in a five-set thriller on Friday and will face the winner of the match between Alexei Popyrin and Novak Djokovic next
Chryslene Caillaud / Panoramic
No 20 seed Frances Tiafoe won against No 13 seed Ben Shelton 4-6, 7-5, 6-7 (5), 6-4, 6-3 to advance to the last 16 of the US Open at the USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center in New York on Friday. With the win, Tiafoe avenged his loss to fellow American Shelton in the quarter-finals of New York Major in 2023.
Shelton took the advantage early in the match as he broke his opponent twice (one break back) in the opening set and secured a lead. Tiafoe wasted no time to cancel out the deficit as he claimed the following set with a solitary break in the 11th game.
The two remained inseparable in the stipulated 12 games of the third set, forcing a tiebreaker, where Shelton raced to a 6-0 lead but shockingly blew five set points. He eventually converted the sixth to restore his advantage.
Thus, Tiafoe found himself in the situation he was during their quarter-final meeting in Flushing Meadows last year as Shelton led that battle 2-1 after winning the third set in a tiebreaker.
Things, however, panned out differently henceforth as the No 20 seed leveled the score for the second time in the match by clinching the fourth set on the back of one break point conversion.
The decider saw Shelton lose his serve in the fourth game and the two players then holding their respective serves with Tiafoe crossing the line before the former to advance.
Frances Tiafoe: “This is my house”
The win meant Frances Tiafoe opened his account against Ben Shelton, who led the head-to-head 2-0 coming into the match.
“This is my house,” Tiafoe told the New York crowd before showering praise on the No 13 seed in his on-court interview.
“Ben is an incredible player man. He’s an incredible player. He really is,” Tiafoe stressed. “He goes for all kinds of shots. He’s got no care in the world. It’s really annoying. He’s for a great serve. He has great mercy out here. He’s really talented. He comes up with great shots. So can I. It gives highlight after highlight. I really hoped you guys enjoyed the show. It was a battle.”
Tiafoe, ranked No 20, will play the winner of the match between Australian Alexei Popyrin, the No 28 seed, and Serb Novak Djokovic, the second seed, next. In the previous rounds, he edged out Aleksandar Kovacevic (6-4, 6-3, 4-6, 7-5) and benefited from the abandonment of Kazakh Alexander Shevchenko (6-4, 6-1, 1-0).
New York (Grand Slam), other third-round results (USD 75.000.000):
- Taylor Fritz (12) beat Francisco Comesana: 6-3, 6-4, 6-2
- Grigor Dimitrov (9) beat Tallon Griekspoor: 6-3, 6-3, 6-1
- Andrey Rublev (6) beat Jiri Lehecka (32): 6-3, 7-5, 6-4
- Flavio Cobolli vs. Daniil Medvedev
- Alex De Minaur vs. Daniel Evans
- Matteo Arnaldi vs. Jordan Thompson
- Nuno Borges vs. Jakub Mensik
- Gabriel Diallo vs. Tommy Paul
- Jannik Sinner vs. Christopher O’Connell
- Botic van de Zandschulp vs. Jack Draper
- David Goffin vs. Tomas Machac
- Tomas Martin Etcheverry vs. Alexander Zverev
- Alexei Popyrin vs. Novak Djokovic
- Brandon Nakashima vs. Lorenzo Musetti
- Casper Ruud vs. Juncheng Shang
