US Open 2022: Francis Tiafoe continues his fairy tale in New York – Rublev’s black streak continues

Francis Tiafoe presented himself as the most focused and versatile player against Andrey Rublev with the crowd at Arthur Ashe Stadium behind him – so the American made a comfortable lead in tie breaks in the first two sets, which he turned into group victories (7:3/7:0).

Breakage chances have been rare for a long time; Tiafoe only managed the first break of the entire game to make it 4:3 in the third set. Rublev, who had previously quarreled with himself, the world and fate, cried the next time the sides changed and cried into a towel.

“I know him well – he fights and fights, but at the moment he sees no way out,” he said. EurosportExpert Misha Zverev: “It’s bad for a tennis player when you’re in such a big stage of the quarter-finals again and you realize: my game isn’t good enough, I don’t know what to do. It’s the worst feeling for you tennis player.”

After 2:36 hours, Tiafoe turned his first match point into the greatest success of his career. “Two days ago I had the biggest win of my career and now I’m in the semi-finals – that’s crazy, that’s crazy,” he said on the court.

Tiafoe mimics Roddick

“I feel at home here, I want to do my best for you,” he told fans at the world’s largest tennis court with more than 15,000 seats.

At the US Open, he failed in the round of 16 in 2020 and 2021. In 2022 he gave up only one set (against Nadal) in New York. “He has now found his limits on the pitch – and is playing very well in that area,” Zverev praised.

In the semi-finals, she now faces the winner of the Night Round between Yannick Sener (Italy/#11) and Carlos Alcaraz (USA/#3). The last American winner in New York was Andy Roddick in 2003. “There are still two games left,” Tiafoe told American fans.

Tiafoe with a great story

Tiafoe presents a special rising star story to his fans. As the son of immigrants from Sierra Leone, he made his way from a humble background to the big stage.

His father, Francis Tiafoe Sr., started a day job at the Junior Tennis Champions Center in the Washington, D.C. area in the 1990s — where his son, who is finally making his mark on the Grand Slam stage, trained for hours each day.

Germany national team coach Barbara Rittner said: “I really love watching him, he has a lot of energy – with history in the background where he came from. He’s incredibly moving and simply plays attractive tennis.” Eurosport.

Rublev loses sixth in Grand Slam quarter-finals

Rublev, ranked fifth in the world at the start of the season and currently ranked eleventh, had beaten first-class players Denis Shapovalov and Cameron Nouri in the previous rounds.

However, the Russian was unsuccessful at the sixth attempt in the Grand Slam quarter-finals. He had already failed this round at the US Open in 2017 and 2020, as well as at the French Open in 2020 and 2022 and at the Australian Open in 2021.

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