In the hypothetical horizon of the semifinals, Tiafoe, son of immigrants from Sierra Leone in the United States and finalist this year in Estoril, could cross paths with the Spanish Carlos Alcaraz.
The eliminations of Daniil Medvedev (number one in the world) and Nadal (third) open the possibility that Alcaraz (fourth) take the lead in the ATP, but to do so he must win the final if he plays it against Casper Ruud (seventh) or be runner-up as long as the Norwegian is not the one who takes the title.
“Serene” Tiafoe
Tiafoe didn’t shy away from meeting the four-time winner on Center Court at Flushing Meadows.
In a duel marked by heat and humidity (both players were sweating profusely from the first point), Tiafoe started bravely with his forehand and sure to hold on to serve despite having trouble hitting his first serve.
Nor was he cut off from going up to the net, but Nadal stopped him easily there with a forceful game from the back of the court.
With the set tied at 3-3, Nadal made several inaccuracies in a row and opened the door for Tiafoe’s break.
The American seized on that lead, held onto it calmly from serve and closed out the first set with a volley after 54 minutes.
Nadal retired to the locker room before the start of the second set in a strangely long break that lasted almost 10 minutes.without the chair umpire explaining the reason and that, according to the chain ESPNwas due to problems in his wrists.
The script of the match continued unchanged with an absolute dominance of services with no options for breakage.
Tiafoe continued to play with amazing ease and enormous confidence, which kept mistakes to a minimum against an equally solid Nadal.
With the forces completely balanced, the key moment came with 4-5 for Nadal when Tiafoe, at a point he had controlled, let a ball bounce thinking it was going out but that ball ended up going in by a hair.
On that miscalculation Nadal built his first two break balls throughout the afternoon (after an hour and 45 minutes of play) and finally won the second set due to a double fault from Tiafoe.