Nadal shuts down against Tiafoe at the US Open

A subdued Nadal could not stop the good game of Frances Tiafoe, who won 6/4, 4/6, 6/4 and 6/3 in just over three and a half hours.

Thomas Osborne
Thomas Osborne
05 September 2022 Monday 20:30
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Nadal shuts down against Tiafoe at the US Open

A subdued Nadal could not stop the good game of Frances Tiafoe, who won 6/4, 4/6, 6/4 and 6/3 in just over three and a half hours. This is how the US Open champion tetra says goodbye to New York.

Tiafoe fulfilled his purpose and ended the unbeaten streak of 22 consecutive Grand Slam matches in 2022. "I'm going to go for him," Frances Tiafoe had said when she found out who her round of 16 rival would be. "Now I think I can beat him."

The American was coming in with confidence having easily made it through his previous three rounds. In fact, he and Alcaraz are the only players from the bottom of the draw who reached the round of 16 without giving up a single set.

And even knowing that the man from Manacor had beaten him both times in which they had competed, both in 2019 (“I am another player now”), Tiafoe went out for Rafa Nadal, ready to make history in front of his audience. That was the main piece of it; the American is a 'showman' who thrives on the energy of the stands and who loves to put on a show for fans to give him wings. This time it cost him, because in New York Rafa is treated almost as if he were from home, and the public was divided.

Still, he accomplished his feat. "I don't know what happened," Tiafoe said excitedly. "I have played incredibly well and I have beaten one of the best players in history."

In the first set both players scored each other. Tiafoe tried to do genius, but he fell short. Rafa lacked a bit of precision, because the shots that would have beaten his opponent to create chances were barely off the line.

In the seventh game came the first and only chance to break, on Rafa's serve, which Tiafoe did not waste. Tiafoe was going for more, trying to use the serve and volley up to the net, but Rafa stopped him with two 'passings' and the American limited himself to playing from the baseline and securing his services, and although he delivered his first set point with a double fault and lost the second with a return from the Balearic Islands, finally taking advantage of the third to take the first set 6-4 in 54 minutes.

In the second round a slightly more expressive Nadal was seen, with a couple of “Come on!”, and sticking out his fist more. The score remained equal until the tenth game, in which he took out Washington. The Mallorcan had two set points and Tiafoe gave up in the second, with a double fault that the hawk eye sang out, although there was no space between the bounce of the ball and the line. The American stared in disbelief, but Rafa leveled the match at a set apiece.

The 24-year-old tennis player was still a bit disappointed, seeing how his advantage against the number three in the world had just vanished, but it did not last long. He started to lay down the law of him, upping the average speed of his serves.

On the first set point of the third set, an ace much less powerful than the shots he had been putting in, Nadal started to go to his chair almost before the ball hit the ground for the second time. He looked subdued but still, he kept fighting.

In the fourth set he took a 3-1 lead but Tiafoe recovered the break from him in the next game and broke him again in the seventh. With Nadal's serve, he went 0-40 and took advantage

Nadal had not fallen in the fourth round of a major for five years, since Wimbledon 2017, and at the US Open since 2016.

Despite this result, Rafa Nadal could still be number one next Monday if neither Carlos Alcaraz nor Casper Ruud reach the US Open final.

Frances Tiafoe is awaited by Andrei Rublev, who easily beat Britain's Cameron Norrie in three sets, by a triple 6/4.

"I don't want to think about my next match yet," said Tiafoe, still enjoying the moment of his victory.

"Frances is a tough player" assessed Rublev. “We have played twice. I lost to him last year here at the US Open. Of course he will try to use the energy, that the public is more electrified, to play better tennis. With him I need to bide my time and use it.”