Young U.S. star faces tough draw
The future of American tennis will be on the sport’s biggest stage, under the Tuesday night lights at Arthur Ashe Stadium, and the capacity crowd of 23,000-plus will be ... rooting against him?
Not because of anything Frances Tiafoe has done wrong — on the contrary, the 19-yearold self-taught prodigy might be the most exciting men’s prospect the country has produced since Andy Roddick.
It’s because his opponent will be Roger Federer, the regal living legend who is beloved in Queens and whose career renaissance at age 36 is this tournament’s best attraction.
So it’s one-and-done for America’s next best hope in Tiafoe, or a nightmare flameout for five-time Open champion Federer, whose earliest exit here was the third round (in 2000, when he was Tiafoe’s age). Whoops, USTA.
“The U.S. Open is so special, and I’m not even saying that as an American,” Tiafoe wrote in a Players’ Tribune piece published Monday. “I just can’t envision a better atmosphere. Half the crowd is drunk and just going nuts in the stands.”
When he lost his 2016 opener to American veteran John Isner in a fifth-set tiebreaker, Tiafoe wrote, “I could feel how hungry the crowd was for an American success story. I want to be that guy so badly.”
Tiafoe and Federer met on a hardcourt this March in Miami, and played a very competitive first set before Federer plucked out the victory, 7-6 (2), 6-3.
“But here’s the most mindblowing thing, something I couldn’t even process at the time: I could have beaten him in that match,” Tiafoe wrote this week.
Federer gave a forgivably unperturbed scouting report of Tiafoe when asked this weekend, calling him an “aggressive baseliner” — his signature shot is an unorthodox looping forehand — who’s “playing well.”
“And there’s still so much work left to do,” wrote Tiafoe, a Maryland native now ranked No. 70. “But I know I can compete with the best in the world and make my career something even bigger than I ever thought it could be.”