Alexei Popyrin came crashing back down to earth, being knocked out of the US Open with a disappointing fourth-round loss to American showman Frances Tiafoe. The Australian rising star couldn’t make good on his third-round win over the great Novak Djokovic, losing 6-4, 7-6 (7-3), 2-6, 6-3 to friend and foe Tiafoe on Sunday night in New York.
With Alex de Minaur and Jordan Thompson now carrying the flag in the men’s singles, Popyrin will be ruing a missed opportunity. The 25-year-old entered the biggest match of his life with six top-20 finishes in his previous eight matches, none bigger than that of 24-time major winner and reigning champion Djokovic.
But the Montreal Masters champion could not recreate the magic of 48 hours earlier as the partisan crowd at Arthur Ashe Stadium, seemingly cheering on every Tiafoe winner and Popyrin mistake, gave the home side hope of a resounding victory. A semi-finalist in 2022 and a quarter-finalist last year, Tiafoe will now face Bulgarian ninth seed Grigor Dimitrov in the last eight.
Popyrin will feel he has missed a great opportunity to reach a first Grand Slam quarter-final after a blistering start to the match. Confident on serve and deadly from behind, Popyrin dominated early on but paid the price for failing to break Tiafoe in the fourth game when he had his regular hitting partner on the back foot serving at 15-40. He then dropped his own serve out of nowhere to fall behind 5-4.
Tiafoe closed the set with love before Popyrin would have more trouble in the second game. Again he was largely untroubled on serve and after breaking Tiafoe for the first time in the fourth game, Popyrin had the set on his racket at 5-3, 40-0. But he blew all three set points and must have cursed himself after being broken to get Tiafoe back in the set.
Tiafoe, feeding off the crowd’s ecstatic support, didn’t need a second invitation. He pushed the set to a tiebreaker and Popyrin made a horror start with a double fault as Tiafoe stormed to a 3-0 lead. Popyrin clawed back, but angry that a spectator had interrupted his serve, Popyrin gave the fans a glare after double faulting again to give Tiafoe a set point. With a big ace, the home crowd favorite surged to a commanding two sets to nil lead.
Not done yet, Australia’s 28th seed dug in to gain a foothold with a near-flawless third set to create doubts in the American’s mind. It was Popyrin who blinked first, double-faulting twice more in the sixth game of the fourth set to give Tiafoe a decisive break.
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The 20th-seeded player showed courage by saving a break point and serving out the match three games later, after three hours and two minutes, to become the first American since Andy Roddick in 2006-08 to reach the US Open quarterfinals for a third consecutive year.
De Minaur, the 10th-seeded team, will take on Thompson in an all-Australian fourth-round clash at Louis Armstrong Stadium on Monday (Tuesday, 7am AEST).