American men provide ray of hope
Youngsters Tiafoe, Fritz show potential in pulling off upsets
MELBOURNE, Australia — Frances Tiafoe rolled up his white shirt’s right sleeve, flexed his biceps and slapped the muscle five times. Then he pounded his chest and yelled, “Yeah! Let’s go! Let’s go! Come on!”
Forgive the young American’s exuberance. This was, after all, the biggest victory of his nascent career.
Down a set and 3-0 in the second, the 20-year-old Tiafoe came back to stun two-time Grand Slam finalist and No. 5 seed Kevin Anderson of South Africa 4-6, 6-4, 6-4, 7-5 on Wednesday in the Australian Open’s second round.
“I went to a different place. I dug insanely deep,” the 39thranked Tiafoe said. “It’s all about competing. Guys are so good. It’s just about how badly you want it. I want it real bad.”
He was joined in the third round by another kid from the U.S. who’d never been that far at Melbourne, 21-year-old Taylor Fritz, who saved 12 of the 13 break points he faced while dispatching No. 30 seed Gael Monfils of France 6-3, 6-7 (8), 7-6 (6), 7-6 (5).
Next for Fritz is Roger Federer, the two-time defending champion in Australia and owner of 20 Grand Slam titles.
“I grew up watching a lot of the guys I play today. I can’t tell you how many times I watched Monfils’ highlight reel on YouTube, just growing up. ‘Fed,’ obviously, my whole life growing up, he was always the best, winning everything,” Fritz said. “So it’s really cool being able to step on the court with him again.”
A day after American men went 1-5, the country’s contingent produced those two upsets and threw a couple of scares into other seeded players, too, but couldn’t pull off the wins.
Mackenzie McDonald pushed No. 6 Marin Cilic before losing 7-5, 6-7 (9), 6-4, 6-4, and Denis Kudla went to a fifth set before bowing out 6-4, 7-5, 3-6, 6-7 (6), 6-4 against No. 18 Diego Schwartzman. Reilly Opelka, a 21-year-old 7-footer who eliminated No. 9 John Isner in an all-U.S. firstround showdown, held a 67-2 ace advantage against Thomas Fabbiano but lost to the Italian 6-7 (15), 6-2, 6-4, 3-6, 7-6 (5).
“This group (of Americans) really deserves the hype, I guess, because I think everyone’s good,” Fritz said.
Cilic was the 2014 U.S. Open champion and the runner-up at Melbourne Park to Federer last year. Against McDonald, an NCAA champion at UCLA who is 23 years old and ranked 81st, Cilic delivered 25 aces, including on each of the last two points.
In early action on Thursday, eighth-seeded Kei Nishikori withstood 59 aces from Ivo Karlovic before beating the veteran Croatian 6-3, 7-6 (6), 5-7, 5-7, 7-6 (7) and advancing to the third round.
Nishikori has gone five sets in both his matches after losing the first two sets of his first-round match before rallying.