Frances Tiafoe won a five set quarterfinal at the US Open on Tuesday night and then spent the next minute holding the man he beat. Alex Michelsen, the 21 year old American on the other side of the net, could not stop crying. Tiafoe pulled him in, kept an arm around him, and said something in his ear while the crowd at Arthur Ashe was still on its feet.
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The match was 5-7, 3-6, 7-5, 6-3, 7-6. Tiafoe lost the first two sets. He went down a break in the fifth. Then he won it in a tiebreak.
That comeback should not have happened based on his own history. Tiafoe came into Tuesday 2-17 in his career at major tournaments when he dropped the first two sets, and 0-4 at the US Open specifically. Michelsen had not lost a single set in the entire tournament, going 14-0 before that third set slipped away from him. He was one game from serving out the biggest win of his life.
He did not get it, and the loss dropped him to 0-3 lifetime in matches that go the full five sets. That is the part that explains the tears. A 21 year old was a game away from his first Grand Slam semifinal and watched it leave the building.
What people are resharing is not the match point. It is what came after. Tiafoe did not celebrate first. He did not milk the crowd. He went straight to Michelsen and stayed with him.
Tiafoe, 28 and seeded 11th, is now in his third US Open semifinal in five years. He faces Ben Shelton, who beat Carlos Alcaraz in a five setter that ended after 3 a.m. Eastern, which means an American man is going to the final for the first time since 2003. Tiafoe has never reached a Grand Slam final in his career.
He is two matches away.
