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By HOWARD FENDRICH AP Tennis Writer
NEW YORK — Frances Tiafoe pulled off the biggest win of his career when the 22nd-ranked American beat second-seeded Rafael Nadal, 6-4, 4-6, 6-4, 6-3, to reach the U.S. Open quarterfinals.
Tiafoe buried his head in his hands and cried on the court after he shook hands with Nadal. He sat on the bench and buried his head in a towel as Nadal walked off and waved to the crowd.
The 24-year-old Tiafoe is the youngest American to reach the quarterfinals since Andy Roddick did so at 24 in 2006, but this was not a case of a one-sided crowd backing one of its own. Nadal is about as popular as it gets in tennis and heard plenty of support in Arthur Ashe Stadium as the volume raised after the retractable roof was shut in the fourth set.
“I don’t even know what to say right now. I’m beyond happy. I can’t believe it,” said Tiafoe, who faces No. 9 seed Andrey Rublev next. “(Nadal)’s one of the greatest of all time. I played unbelievable tennis today, but I don’t even know what happened.”
Here’s what happened: Tiafoe served better than Nadal. More surprisingly, he returned better, too. And he kept his cool, remained in the moment and never let the stakes or the opponent get to him. Nadal had won both of their previous matches, and every set they played, too.
“Well done for him,” Nadal said. “He was better than me.”
This surprise came a day after one of Tiafoe’s pals, Nick Kyrgios, eliminated top seed and defending champion Daniil Medvedev.
Nadal won the Australian Open in January and the French Open in June. Then he made it to the semifinals at Wimbledon in July before withdrawing from that tournament because of a torn abdominal muscle; that does not go into the books as a loss, because he pulled out before the match.
The 36-year-old from Spain competed only once in the 1½ months between leaving the All England Club and arriving in New York while recovering from that injury. His play has not been up to his usual standards at the U.S. Open, which he has won four times, particularly his serve.
Nadal tweaked his service motion, tossing the ball lower than he normally does so as not to put as much strain on his midsection while reaching with his racket. There were plenty of signs Monday that his serve is just not in tip-top shape: nine double-faults, a first-serve percentage hovering around 50%, five breaks by Tiafoe.
The next-to-last break came for a 4-3 edge in the fourth set, when Nadal put a backhand into the net, and Tiafoe skipped backward toward the sideline for the ensuing changeover, his fist raised. Fifteen minutes later, Tiafoe broke again, and it was over.
When one last backhand by Nadal found the net, Tiafoe put his hands on his head. When he sat in his sideline chair, he buried his face in a towel.
“When I first came on the scene, a lot of people had limitations on what I would do. … I wasn’t ‘ready for it mentally.’ I wasn’t ‘mature,’” Tiafoe said. But these days, he added, “I’m able to just do me and do it my way and enjoy the game I love.”
This represents the latest significant step forward for Tiafoe, whose only previous trip to a Grand Slam quarterfinal came at the 2019 Australian Open – and ended with a loss to Nadal.
Tiafoe thanked a long list of folks who were in the stands, including his parents – they emigrated from Sierra Leone in West Africa and Dad worked as a maintenance man at a tennis facility near the U.S. capital – his girlfriend and Washington Wizards All-Star guard Bradley Beal.
“To have them see what I did today means more than anything,” Tiafoe said. “Today’s an unbelievable day and I’m going to soak this one in, for sure.”
There were signs of trouble for Nadal earlier in the tournament. He lost the first set of his first-round match. Did the same in the second round, when he also accidentally cut the bridge of his nose and made himself dizzy when the edge of his racket frame bounced off the court and caught him in the face on a backhand follow-through.
Nadal entered 22-0 at Grand Slam events in 2022. He was 21-1 against Americans since October 2017, which included straight-set wins over Tiafoe in the 2019 Australian Open quarterfinals and 2019 Madrid third round.
The early edge was a boon for Tiafoe, who already was the first American man to reach the fourth round in three straight years since Mardy Fish in 2010-12. Nadal has never come back from down 2-1 at the U.S. Open and fell to 0-7 overall at Flushing Meadows with that deficit.
Marin Cilic is now the last remaining major champion left in the men’s draw. If he loses to the heavily favored Carlos Alcaraz on Monday night, it will be only the third time in the Open Era (1968) that a men’s major tournament has a quarterfinal lineup without an ex-champion.
This is also just the second major since the start of 2005 without any member of the “Big 3” of Roger Federer, Novak Djokovic and Nadal in the quarterfinals. The other was the 2020 French Open – Federer and Nadal didn’t play, and Djokovic was defaulted against Pablo Carreño Busta in the Round of 16.
Earlier Monday, Rublev reached his sixth Grand Slam quarterfinal by beating No. 7 Cam Norrie, 6-4, 6-4, 6-4. Rublev is into his third quarterfinal at Flushing Meadows; he is 0-2 at that stage in New York – and 0-5 at all majors.
The other men’s match on Monday’s schedule was No. 11 Jannik Sinner vs. Ilya Ivashka.
SWIATEK, PEGULA ADVANCE
Iga Swiatek covered her head with a white towel during one changeover after falling behind by a set and a break in the fourth round. She kept making mistakes, then rolling her eyes or glaring in the direction of her guest box.
Eventually, Swiatek got her strokes straightened out and began playing more like someone who is ranked No. 1, moving into her first quarterfinal at Flushing Meadows by coming back to beat Jule Neiemeier, 2-6, 6-4, 6-0, in Louis Armstrong Stadium.
“I’m just proud,” Swiatek said, “that I didn’t lose hope.”
The 21-year-old from Poland will face another first-time U.S. Open quarterfinalist next. That’s No. 8 seed Jessica Pegula, the highest-ranked American woman, who advanced earlier Monday with a 6-3, 6-2 victory over two-time Wimbledon winner Petra Kvitova in a match interrupted by rain for 45 minutes during the third game because the retractable roof at Arthur Ashe Stadium was not closed when a drizzle became a downpour.
Pegula called it “a little frustrating,” saying it was particularly tough “at the start of the match, when there’s no feeling of what’s going on. You’re just sitting there in limbo, not sure what to do.”
The U.S. Tennis Association said in a statement that its “weather team” told U.S. Open organizers there was no rain expected. The statement added: “Unfortunately, a pop-up sunshower occurred.”
The other women’s fourth-round matches Monday were two-time Australian Open champion Viktoria Azarenka against two-time major finalist Karolina Pliskova, and No. 6 Aryna Sabalenka against No. 19 Danielle Collins.
Pegula, a 28-year-old who was born in New York and whose parents own the NFL’s Buffalo Bills and NHL’s Buffalo Sabres, reeled off the last three games of Monday’s opening set, which ended with a double-fault by No. 21 Kvitova, and then the last six games after trailing 2-0 in the second.
This will be Pegula’s third appearance in a major quarterfinal this season – and third against the woman who led the rankings at the time. She lost to the since-retired Ash Barty at the Australian Open, which Barty ended up winning, then to Swiatek at the French Open, which Swiatek wound up winning for her second championship there.
“I just have to play within myself,” Pegula said, “and play smart and be present.”
Swiatek arrived in New York having gone just 4-4 since the end of a 37-match winning streak that carried her to six consecutive tournament titles. On Monday, she listened to her usual pre-match playlist – a mix of Pearl Jam, AC/DC, Led Zeppelin and Gorillaz – then came out flat as can be against Neiemer, who is ranked 108th but reached the quarterfinals at Wimbledon in July in just her second major tournament.
Niemeier was better in the first set. Far better. Swiatek produced only four winners and 13 unforced errors, got broken twice and never earned a single break point.
Then, just winning the second set to pull even was quite the struggle for Swiatek.
She got broken early and fell behind 2-1, which is when she draped herself with a towel. She seemed to be talking to herself under there.
Whatever went on, Swiatek immediately flipped things around with a three-game run to lead 4-2. Even after getting a chance to serve for that set at 5-3, she double-faulted to close that game.
Nothing, it seemed, would come easily on this muggy afternoon, with the temperature above 80 degrees Fahrenheit and the humidity above 50%.
But Swiatek did break right back, helped by a wild forehand from Niemeier, and let out a shout.
To a third set they went, and Swiatek completely cleaned up her act: The unforced error count was one for her and 14 for Neiemer. When it ended, Swiatek jumped and threw an uppercut and shook her right fist.
More to come on this story.
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