“Maybe it’s time”: Frances Tiafoe, Tommy Paul and the American men that could seize a US Open moment

NEW YORK—A long-awaited explosion in American men’s tennis, culminating with the coronation of the first native-born Grand Slam singles champion since Andy Roddick in 2003, may be in the making at this US Open. The fuse was lit Friday afternoon by Frances Tiafoe and Ben Shelton.

“There’s something about this US Open,” Martin Blackman, the General Manager of Player Development for the USTA, told me this morning. “We have five young men in the Top 25, and all of them are in good form. And the diversity is incredible. Last night, we had an incredible match featuring two young men of color who both had legitimate hopes of going all the way. Maybe it’s time.”

If your head was among the many thousands bobbing along like corks on the human sea leaving Arthur Ashe Stadium following the conclusion of the Shelton-Tiafoe match, you might agree with Blackman. The match, won by Tiafoe in five sets, provided an awesome display of firepower, athleticism, and skill—delivered with a large side dish of charisma. Nobody who was present is likely to forget it.

After nearly 10 years on the job, Blackman is seeing the fruits of the USTA’s player development strategy he helped to create. An ATP pro in the early 1990s, Blackman is proud of the organization’s commitment to diversity, and heartened by the way it has been refashioning the culture of tennis—generating more widespread general appeal for the sport. The USTA’s investment in diversity has been paying great dividends.

The first major sign of progress during Blackman’s tenure was in 2017, when the US Open featured an all-American women’s semifinals (Sloane Stephens, Madison Keys, CoCo Vandeweghe and Venus Williams). The next seismic event was last year’s quarterfinal clash between Shelton and Tiafoe, which Shelton won in four sets.

This last battle between those men was different: It was of a higher quality, and the athleticism and skill that earned Tiafoe the win positioned him as a contender for the title. The crown that suddenly appears to be up for grabs.

Yeah, we’ve all watched, or at least I watched, the last two night sessions. Tommy Paul, on the upsets of Carlos Alcaraz and Novak Djokovic under the lights at the US Open

Novak Djokovic, the defending champ and No. seed is out, victim of an upset by No. 28 seed Alexei Popyrin. Gone too, is No. 3 seed and reigning Roland Garros and Wimbledon champion Carlos Alcaraz, eliminated by Dutch journeyman Botic van de Zandschulp. Top-seed Jannik Sinner is still alive and kicking, but he’s dealing with major distractions related to a doping controversy.

Plenty of dangerous, experienced, quality seeds remain, though. They include former champion Daniil Medvedev (seeded No. 5) and 2020 runner-up Alexander Zverev (seeded No. 6). But there’s no doubt about it, the U.S. men are flexing: No. 12 seed Taylor Fritz and unheralded Brandon Nakashima reached the safety of the fourth round on Friday as well.

Today, Tommy Paul also pulled into a fourth-round parking space, right next to his three companions. But the way he got there highlighted a spooky side effect of the turbulence at the top of the game. The elimination of long-standing obstacles like four-time US Open champion Djokovic was like opening the door to a blast furnace. The heat is pouring out on the faces of all the hopefuls.

Paul was paired in the third-round with a 22-year old Canadian qualifier, 143^rd-ranked Gabriel Diallo. Despite the vast gulf in ranking and experience, the two men resembled a pair of puppies fighting over a chew toy neither was strong enough to wrest from the other. Finally, after three hours and 26-minutes, Paul finally prevailed, 6-7 (5), 6-3, 6-1, 7-6 (3).

Diallo won his first Grand Slam main-draw match here this year, but at the start of the match it was Paul who looked more the nervous nelly. Although he broke first, taking a 4-3 lead, he handed the advantage right back. Neither man was able to hold serve the rest of the way to the tiebreaker, which Diallo won. Paul found his footing in sets two and three, but in the fourth set he fell behind by two breaks—doom, usually—but he fought back and swept through the concluding tiebreaker.

Afterward, Paul dispelled the notion that he felt a special pressure due to the opportunity created by the earlier upsets of the game’s heavies.

“Well, I play the No. 1 in the world [Jannik Sinner] tomorrow, so I don’t know if I’m thinking ‘opportunity’ too much,” Paul said, half in jest. “But it’s definitely an opportunity to play on Arthur Ashe Stadium in the next round, so I’m looking forward to that. Yeah, we’ve all watched, or at least I watched, the last two night sessions.

“I mean, those guys (Shelton and Tiafoe) stepped up and played awesome tennis. Different parts of the draws have opened up, but mine has not. I have a tough match ahead of me, but I'm excited for it.”

The drive to create greater diversity in tennis was not just a strategy for improving the social fabric or the complexion of pro sports. It has also been an effort to produce the kind of dynamism on display in the Shelton-Tiafoe match, and to give tennis the kind of appeal the sport lacked when it was saddled with a reputation—mostly if not entirely deserved—as an elitist sport for the country club set.

The player currently leading the charge in that latter regard is Tiafoe, he of the inspirational backstory, the riveting, idiosyncratic game, and a personality as big as his pal Shelton’s serve. Tiafoe appears to be enjoying the assignment.

He said yesterday (for the umpteenth time, it seems), “I think I've had an amazing crossover. A lot of people that follow and want to come watch that would never really watch tennis. Because of the story I have and my interests outside of the game, it's really helped the sport go forward. . .Tennis is in a great place, and I'm happy with everything I've been able to do.”

Speaking of the impact a match like theirs can create, Shelton predicted that tennis will continue to improve, reaching out to wider and wider audiences.

“I think that Foe is the best at reaching the casual sports fan in our sport, especially here in America,” Shelton said. “I think he's kind of helped change the culture in our sport in the last few years. It’s one of those things that I can look to try to do, as well.”

Those were generous words coming from a youth who had just absorbed a painful beating at the hands of his rival. Shelton’s class and intelligence go hand-in-hand with his exuberance, and you can bet they will serve him equally well in the long run. He is, after all, still just 21, five years younger than Tiafoe.

For all its high drama, this match was also an uplifting experience, a tonic for some of the ills of our time. You have to wonder if tennis could have arrived at the appealing place it now occupies in the public imagination were it not for the battle for inclusion, a struggle that made us familiar with names like those of Althea Gibson and Arthur Ashe, and then the emergence of Zina Garrison and James Blake, Madison and Coco, Frances and Ben. And who would discount the impact of the ascendancy of the Williams sisters?

“You see a match like that one in Arthur Ashe,” Blackman said. “And then you walk out of there and see the bust of Althea (Gibson), and you can begin to connect all those dots that signal that we as a sport are moving in the right direction.”

The fuse is lit. Let’s see if it begets an explosion.