Tiafoe still chillin’ — and victorious
Frances Tiafoe gave two reasons why this most chaotic of Fayez Sarofim & Co. U.S. Clay Court Championship weeks has been so well suited for his personal vibe. One, he needed some down time and, two, he said he's a man who “likes to chill. I'm a pretty relaxed guy.”
No kidding. The tournament's top seed — he's No. 1 in an ATP-level event for the first time in his career — turned Saturday's anticipated grueling doubleheader into either a day at the beach or a stroll in park.
Pick your metaphor. Tiafoe played four sets. He handily won all four, first knocking out twice former champion Steve Johnson 6-2, 6-4, then taking down sixth-seeded Australian Jason Kubler 6-4, 6-4.
Johnson, the last man standing in both 2017 and 2018, was one of three former singles champions knocked out Saturday. Earlier, John Isner, the 2013 winner and last year's runner-up who was seeded fourth, lost his secondround match, played over a three-day span, to Gijs Brouwer 6-4, 7-6 (4).
And Cristian Garin (2019) bowed out in the quarters, succumbing to Argentina's Tomas Martin Etcheverry 6-1, 6-7 (2), 6-3 after he had first staved off lucky loser Zizou Berg's plucky effort to advance to the quarters 7-6 (4), 7-6 (1).
Those two tiebreakers seemingly sapped a little too much of Garin's energy, although he fought valiantly to rally from the brink of defeat in the second set to force the day's only — fortunately — third set.
Kubler, who knew at the time that he had at least one difficult doubles scuffle to go before his long day would be done, had himself impressively saved several match points to prolong the inevitable against Tiafoe, who is 17-5 in match play on the season and ranked 15th in the world but is still looking for a second career ATP title to go with the one he claimed in Delray Beach in 2018.
Ultimately, though, Kubler couldn't answer the bell for doubles. He and Rinky Hijikata, the Australian Open champions and top seeds here, defaulted to the third seeds, Brits Julian Cash and Harry Patten. Kubler was the defending champion too, having won the title last spring with Matthew Ebden.
Before coming to River Oaks, Tiafoe went into the Miami Open a bit fatigued and lost in the second round, after having made the semifinals at Indian Wells. He welcomed all the down time he could get in Houston, although he admitted he would have liked a little more practice on the clay.
It has hardly showed. “I think it's better,” he said. “I've hit enough balls in my life. It's all about me being mentally there and mentally ready to play. I like where I'm at mentally. I'm beating guys I'm supposed to beat by great scores, not in wars. I'm having a great start to the year. And I'm staying in a nice house across the street, with nice people. I've been relaxing and having a good time.”
Tiafoe's next obstacle will be Houston-born Dutchman Brouwer, a 6-4, 6-4 winner over the fifthseeded American J. J. Wolf.
Both Brouwer, whose parents were international business executives from The Netherlands based in Houston when they had him 27 years ago, and the 25-year-old Wolf had needed four days of on-again, off-again tennis to escape the second round with rain pummeling the River Oaks red clay mercilessly since Wednesday. But by late afternoon Saturday, the sky was clearing, a splendid development given that 17 matches were on the schedule.
Wolf first eliminated countryman Denis Kudla 6-4, 6-1 by winning eight of the nine games they played Saturday morning under very different conditions. The very slow courts gradually became quick, fast and slippery.
The singles semifinals and finals are set for Easter Sunday, the former not before noon and the latter not before 7 p.m. The doubles final will be played not before 4:30 p.m.
Tiafoe will approach things the same as he did this day, saying he's trying “to win one match, not two.” In the Grand Slams, after all, they're all best of five in singles. What's the difference between playing four or five sets against two different opponents?
“I'll be ready to go,” he said. “No excuses. Everybody's doing the same thing, dealing with the same things.
But had Tiafoe ever played a semis and a finals in the same day at this level?
“Hell no,” he admitted, laughing. “But you gotta do what you gotta do.”
The second round, which began Wednesday, was finally a wrap when Machac defeated the seventh-seeded American Marcos Giron 6-4, 6-4, ensuring a qualifier would reach the semifinals for second time in the past three tournaments. Earlier, Machac's next obstacle, Germany's Yannick Hanfmann, had pulled off the biggest upset of the waterlogged tournament, beating second-seeded Tommy Paul 7-6 (2), 6-2.
Kubler's 6-4, 6-2 secondround victory came at the expense of Colombia's Daniel Elahi Galan, also a semifinalist as a qualifier in 2019.
Paul, who reached the Australian Open semifinals in January with a stunning upset of his own at the expense 22-time Grand Slam champion Rafael Nadal, at least went down stubbornly to Hanfmann, saving six match points against his serve in the final game before succumbing 7-6 (6), 6-2.
It was Berg's first live tennis since he lost in qualifying last Sunday. He had gained a spot in the main draw — and what's usually a prized first-round bye — when third seed Brandon Nakashima pulled out with a knee injury.
“I'm just happy I started really sharp,” Brouwer said in his on-court interview after the Isner match. “I started very well on Wednesday, then yesterday also played very good. Today was only 10 minutes, but I was sharp again. I'm happy to win. It was a crazy couple of days.”
The only downside to his drawn-out victory was that his parents weren't here to see him finish his business. They'd been on the grounds all week but had to leave Houston Saturday morning.
“They're at the airport right now,” Brouwer noted, laughing. “But they'll probably watch it on some live stream.”
Later, he said his dad texted him congratulations and would be speaking “as soon as they land (in Amsterdam).”
The 33-year-old Johnson won back-to-back titles in 2017-18, while Isner, who turns 38 next month, was the 2013 champion. He lost to the currently injured Riley Opelka in the 2022 final, after the tournament had been canceled the previous two years because of the COVID-19 pandemic following Garin's triumph over Casper Rudd, now a world top-five player.
Rudd was supposed to have been the No. 1 seed in 2022, but he withdrew after reaching the final in Miami, blaming issues with his wisdom teeth. In a video made that afternoon, he promised to return, saying he “owed Houston one,” but that didn't happen, leaving Tiafoe as favorite.
“It was a week of firsts,” Johnson said, referencing the week's rain-caused chaos (but also their simultaneous demise). “John and I talked about it. We'd never had this happen. You'll see it at some clay events, but, because they bubble (cover) the courts, you stop and you start and you stop you start but you finish. Here, it's hard. You feel bad for the fans. You feel bad for everybody. But there's nothing we could have done. The courts were unsafe.
“Look,” he added, “there are lot worse places to hang around than Houston. We love this event, the families we stay with. The hospitality is the best, bar none. We're lucky to be here.”