Nadal stunned by Tiafoe at US Open
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Frances Tiafoe beat Rafael Nadal 6-4, 4-6, 6-4, 6-3 in the fourth round of the US Open.
NEW YORK (AFP) - Frances Tiafoe of the United States produced the performance of a lifetime to send Rafael Nadal crashing out of the US Open in a stunning fourth round upset on Monday.
Tiafoe, who had only reached one major championship quarter-final in his career before, shattered Nadal s hopes of adding to his record collection of 22 Grand Slam singles titles with a 6-4, 4-6, 6-4, 6-3 victory.
A packed Arthur Ashe Stadium crowd roared in delight as the 24-year-old 22nd seed bombarded Nadal with 18 aces and 49 winners to seal victory in 3hr 34min.
The win sends Tiafoe into a last eight showdown against Russian ninth seed Andrey Rublev on Wednesday.
"I don t even know what to say right now," Tiafoe said after his superb victory. "I m beyond happy, I m almost in tears.I can t believe it.
"He s definitely one of the greatest of all time. I played unbelievable tennis today but yeah - I really don t know what happened."
Tiafoe, the son of immigrants from Sierra Leone who began playing tennis as a four-year-old when his father worked as a live-in caretaker at a tennis facility in Maryland, had never gone further than the fourth round at the US Open in seven previous appearances.
"When I first came on the scene a lot of people had expectations of me of how I would do and stuff, but I wasn t ready for it. Mentally I wasn t mature enough for those moments," Tiafoe said.
"But these last couple of years I ve been able to put my head down and develop."
Nadal paid tribute to Tiafoe s performance, and admitted he had struggled to cope with the American s tactic of moving him around the court.
- I played a bad match -
"I played a bad match and he played a good match. At the end that s it, no?," Nadal said.
"Tennis is a sport of position a lot of times, no? If not, you need to be very, very quick and very young. I am not in that moment anymore," the 36-year-old said.
In two previous matches against Nadal, Tiafoe had never taken a single set off the Spanish legend.
However he set the tone for magical performance early in Monday s match, grabbing the first with a break of serve to go 4-3 up in the first before taking the set.
Nadal hit back to level in the second set as Tiafoe nervily double-faulted on set point.
But the American regrouped superbly in the third, sending Nadal scampering across the baseline repeatedly with some pinpoint groundstrokes into the corners.
He broke for a 4-3 lead once more and then held for 5-3. After Nadal held to close the gap, Tiafoe served for the set and clinched a 2-1 lead with an ace after a masterful running forehand winner down the line had taken him to match point.
The turning point in a pivotal fourth set came soon after Nadal had swept into a 3-1 lead, roaring with delight after breaking Tiafoe and seemingly poised to force a fifth set.
Tiafoe however broke back to cut the deficit, cleverly moving Nadal out of position before hammering a forehand into the corner to make it 3-2.
Nadal almost struck back immediately in the next game however, earning two break points at 15-40.
But Tiafoe responded magnificently with four straight points to hold with an ace to level the set at 3-3.
From there, Tiafoe s momentum proved irresistible and he broke once more for a 4-3 and then held serve after blasting his 18th ace of the game for 5-3, before scoring another break to clinch victory.
