Frances Tiafoe enchants New York: The 24-year-old is the first local hero since Andy Roddick in 2006 to reach the semifinals of the US Open. The world number 26. prevailed in the quarter-finals on Wednesday with power and finesse 7: 6 (7: 3), 7: 6 (7: 0), 6: 4 against the Russian Andrei Rublev, whose quarter-final curse continues.
It was the sixth attempt for the 24-year-old to reach the semi-finals of a Grand Slam tournament – Rublev failed each time. He bravely countered Tiafoe, but in the tie-breaks of the first two sets, the crowd favorite shifted up a gear. In the third set, Rublev was no longer able to counter.
Tiafoe, who sensationally knocked out Grand Slam champion Rafael Nadal in the round of 16 and is now meeting Spaniard Carlos Alcaraz or Italian Jannik Sinner, gives his fans a special story of promotion. As the son of immigrants from Sierra Leone, he fought his way from a humble background to the big stage.
His father, Frances Tiafoe Sr., started out as a day laborer at the Junior Tennis Champions Center in the Washington DC area in the 1990s – his son trained there for hours every day, and he’s now making his debut on the Grand Slam stage.