With his upset of Rafael Nadal, Frances Tiafoe comes of age at the US Open

Confessional Cart: Frances Tiafoe faces his biggest fears

NEW YORK—Frances Tiafoe has been living his best life this summer, and that life got even better at the US Open on Labor Day, as the 24-year old with the mile-wide smile thrilled a packed Arthur Ashe Stadium with a stunning upset of the tournament’s No. 2 seed, Rafael Nadal.

Still in a mild state of shock after Nadal drove a backhand passing shot into the net on Tiafoe’s second match point, the winner told the crowd, “I played unbelievable tennis today. . . I don’t know what happened.”

What happened was that Tiafoe changed as a tennis player, if not a person, in the course of the 3:34 clash that ended 6-4, 4-6, 6-4, 6-3. His game was as explosive as usual, but this time he was able to sustain his brilliant shotmaking and steely concentration from beginning to end. The performance brought to a halt Nadal’s 22-match winning streak at the Slams (he was undefeated at majors until tonight, a withdrawal before his semifinal at Wimbledon the only asterisk on that run).

By contrast, Tiafoe was a tepid 5-3 in the previous majors of 2022, but what did he care? His ranking hit a career-high of No. 24 in the third week of August, and he’s always performed his best at this venue, having made the fourth round the past three years running. The time seemed right for a breakthrough.

“For a while there, I was like, ‘Geez. You see all these young guys get Rafa, Fed, Novak,” Tiafoe mused after his win. “Am I ever going to be able to say I beat one of them?’ Today I was like, ‘No, I'm going to do that.’ So now, it's something to tell the kids, the grandkids, ‘Yeah, I beat Rafa.’”

Many in the full house on Ashe will also be telling their offspring that they witnessed this rebuke of 22-time Grand Slam champion Nadal, especially if it proves to be what many suspect—another bittersweet but inevitable chapter in the demise of the Big Four that ruled tennis for two decades. The august members of that quartet will almost certainly win more majors, but the winds of change are stirring the air.

“It's not like you’ve got to beat Murray in his prime and DelPo, Fed[erer],” Tiafoe said earlier in the tournament. “That’s not the case any more. I mean, guys are good, but the level is not as drastic.”

There’s no doubt the younger contenders smell blood in the water. They’ve been jockeying for position, each individual hoping to be the one to nip in and join the Grand Slam champion’s club. Tiafoe has also found himself asking that proverbial question, “Why not me?”

“I think tennis needs some new faces, what have you,” the Maryland native said. “But it's interesting. I mean, I'm not there yet if you ask me. I'm still that dark horse who can do something special. And I like it that I'm not in the forefront of that because, you know, let those guys handle the pressure. I'm kind of Court 17, get some cheeky wins.”

Tiafoe is no dark horse no more, and you probably won’t be seeing him entertain the crowd with his athleticism and power on Court 17 much longer. But he also knew full well there would be no sneaking into the ranks of the elite without an A-game, and that’s something Tiafoe has had trouble sustaining over the course of entire matches against good players. He showed both general insight and self-knowledge when, leading up to the Nadal match, he remarked: “I think it’s the same thing for everybody with Rafa. You have to match his intensity from the first point to the last. You can't really have any dips. He takes advantage of it.”

This was not the Nadal we’ve grown accustomed to, nor the Tiafoe who has so often lost his momentum, and had matches snatched out of his hands.

Those dips, the inconsistency that comes from losing focus, have plagued Tiafoe throughout a career in which he went from being a prodigy with an inspirational backstory to a popular star without making some of the requisite stops along the way. “I was in a rut,” he wrote in The Players Tribune in 2018, as he came to understand that his fame was outstripping his achievements, and creating unwanted pressure. “I got caught up in that status thing. I needed to get back to how it was when I was a kid—just having fun out there.”

Tiafoe gradually rediscovered the simple fun of the game, and over time and despite the hurdles presented by the Covid pandemic, he put together a support team he trusts led by coach Wayne Ferreria. He’s improved his fitness dramatically, ensuring that, if necessary, he could go the five-set distance if necessary. He felt, heading into this event, that he was playing great tennis. His form held up over the first three rounds, during which he did not lose a set.

“Now I believe I can beat him [Nadal],” Tiafoe said following his impressive third-round win over one of the toughest outs in tennis, Diego Schwartzman. He brashly added, “If I end up playing him, I'm definitely going to come after him.”

That would have been bulletin-board material in many households, but not Nodal’s. The Spanish star genuinely respects all his rivals, but he won both his previous matches with Tiafoe without the loss of a set in 2019. But, Tiafoe said, “Those were a long time ago and I’m a different player now.”

The main thing on Tiafoe’s mind before the match was the importance of getting off on a good foot, holding serve, maybe even winning the first set.

“I never really gave myself a chance the last couple times I played him,” he said. “I got broken so early in each set. I was like, ‘If I can just hold serve, 1-All, 2-All, 3-All. . . .’ Then you start feeling alright, then you just play. You're in the match. These guys are such good frontrunners.”

It was certainly different this time, as Tiafoe played nearly flawless tennis at the outset and logged the first break of serve in the seventh game. He served his way out of a jam in the next game and went on to comfortably serve out the set. Nadal won the second set, but Tiafoe roared back to take the third, punctuated with an ace.

Nadal knew that he was in trouble. As he said later, “I was not enough quick on my movements. He was able to take the ball too many times very early, so I was not able to push him back. Tennis is a sport of position a lot of times, no? If not, you need to be very, very quick and very young (smiling). I am not in that moment anymore.”

While Tiafoe swung the racquet freely and with devastating effect, he was constantly aware that he could not afford any of those “dips” that have so often been his undoing. He faced a test of his resolve in fourth game of the final set, Tiafoe serving at 1-2.

Early in the game, the two halves of the roof over Arthur Ashe Stadium began sliding together because of the threat of rain. It distracted Tiafoe, who cast looks of annoyance at the sky. After he double-faulted to fall behind 15-30, Tiafoe began chattering at the chair umpire. He made a mess of an easy high volley to lose the next point and in no time Nadal had the break—and a 3-1 lead in the critical set. To top it off, Tiafoe was hit with code violation for uttering an “audible obscenity” aimed no doubt at the roof that was now closed.

This was just the kind of reversal Nadal ordinarily would exploit to maximum effect, but this was not the Nadal we’ve grown accustomed to, nor the Tiafoe who has so often lost his momentum, and had matches snatched out of his hands. Double-faulting twice, Nadal fumbled away the next game, whereupon Tiafoe hit another gear and reeled off the next four games to wrap up the upset.

“It was definitely one hell of a performance,” Tiafoe said of his strikingly mature game and mentality. “I guess I just came out there and I just believed I could do it. . .I'm a different person now, a different player.”

Different, more mature, but still not above flashing that dazzling smile that lit up the New York sky late on Labor Day.