Frances Tiafoe made a big promise to the cheering fans. “It’s going to be epic. Friday is going to be a hell of a day,” the crowd favorite shouted to the spectators in Arthur Ashe Stadium at the US Open. A day that American tennis players have been waiting for for a very long time.
Tiafoe and Alexander Zverev’s conqueror Taylor Fritz will meet in a US duel for a place in the final of the Grand Slam tournament in New York. “A semifinal for the ages,” as Sports Illustrated proclaimed, describing the dilemma of the recent past: “A decades-long streak of ineptitude in American men’s tennis will finally be broken this year.”
This is how long the US players have been waiting for the big triumph
The women, including superstars such as Serena and Venus Williams and Coco Gauff, celebrated title after title, and now Emma Navarro and Jessica Pegula have at least made it to the semi-finals. But in the men’s competition, Andy Roddick was last in a Grand Slam final 15 years ago at Wimbledon. And the 42-year-old was also the last American tennis player to win a title at one of the four major tournaments in New York in 2003.
Since then, the US men have been waiting for the triumph and are constantly being compared to former greats such as Roddick and the even more successful Pete Sampras and Andre Agassi. “I want this to finally stop,” said Roddick before the semi-final in response to the eternal questions to the current generation about the past. “I hate it. I want them to win it. And if someone wins it, then they can do it regularly. Then they won’t have to play against ghosts anymore.”
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Since the beginning of their careers, Fritz and Tiafoe have been haunted by these ghosts of the past. The two 26-year-olds share their fate with Tommy Paul (27), Sebastian Korda (24) and Ben Shelton (21), who are also currently in the top 20 in the world rankings. “We have always shared the pressure,” said Fritz. “We are four or five guys who are all incredible players. It’s great because we all push each other and make each other better.”
“Video game guy” versus “loud” and “obnoxious”
This year, Fritz or Tiafoe could be the one to do it – two opposite types will meet before the final on Sunday. “You can’t have any greater extremes in terms of personalities,” said Tiafoe, describing himself and Fritz. “He’s a video game guy, never leaves the room. I’m loud and sometimes obnoxious. Because we’re so different, we get along so well.”
Both knew each other as children and played against each other in youth tournaments. But their paths to tennis could hardly have been more different.
Different paths to tennis
Tiafoe grew up in very simple circumstances as the son of immigrants from Sierra Leone. His father Constant worked as a janitor in a junior tennis center, and Frances often slept on a massage table there. As he hit the ball against a wall by himself, he imagined playing against Roger Federer at the US Open. He was laughed at for his dream of becoming a tennis professional. He didn’t have enough money. His first coach paid for his playing equipment and the fee for his first youth tournament.
Fritz’s career, on the other hand, was shaped by his family. His mother Kathy May was among the top ten in the world, and his father Guy was also a tennis professional and later a coach.
Both were predicted to have great careers when they were young. And so Fritz had an early premonition of what was to come on Friday. On a flight a few years ago, the Californian leaned over to him, Tiafoe reported. “Brother, I think you and I are going to be the Americans number one and two and show the way,” he recalled Fritz’s words before the semifinal. “I told him: ‘Boy, it’s six in the morning, I’m pretty tired – but let’s do it.'”
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