Frances Tiafoe, facing a possible loss in the second set with his opponent serving, found a silver lining. At least he thought he would get to change out of his sweaty shirt and sneakers.
However, he didn’t need to change his clothes. Instead, he turned the match around.
Tiafoe came back to win the second set and went on to reach the U.S. Open quarterfinals for the third consecutive year, defeating Alexei Popyrin 6-4, 7-6 (3), 2-6, 6-3 on Sunday night.
“I think the second set was a huge, huge win for me,” Tiafoe said. “You know, 5-3, 40-love, him serving, how good he serves, that was really, really big. To break there and then to win that set was huge.”
The No. 20 seed will try to match his best Grand Slam result when he plays No. 9 Grigor Dimitrov on Tuesday for a place in the semifinals.
Tiafoe lost to eventual champion Carlos Alcaraz in the semifinals in 2022, and was knocked out by Ben Shelton in the quarterfinals last year.
Tiafoe is the first American man to reach three straight U.S. Open quarterfinals since Andy Roddick from 2006-08. Pete Sampras and Andre Agassi are the only other American men since 2000 to make the final eight in New York three years in a row.
This achievement comes after a tough first half of the season for Tiafoe, who found his form during the hard-court season leading up to the U.S. Open.
“Everything is happening when it’s meant to happen,” Tiafoe said. “I’m glad it’s happening now because this is the most important time for me.”
He turned the match around late in the second set when Popyrin was serving with a 5-3 lead and a chance to even the match. Tiafoe won the next five points to break and quickly took control of the tiebreaker, jumping to a 4-1 lead.
Popyrin, the No. 28 seed from Australia, had upset defending champion Novak Djokovic on Friday to reach the fourth round of a Grand Slam for the first time. He felt he might have advanced further if he had closed out the second set.
