NEW YORK — According to Frances Tiafoe, Taylor Fritz predicted moments like this for the two.
And for American men’s tennis.
It was during an early morning flight together a few years ago that the conversation turned to the future and possibilities, Tiafoe said after setting up a US Open semi-final on Friday against Fritzanother 26-year-old American, who ensures that the United States has a man in a Grand Slam title fight for the first time since Andy Roddick lost to Roger Federer at Wimbledon in 2009.
“He’s a pretty private guy, and he’s like, ‘Bro, I think you and I are going to be the 1-2 Americans and lead the way.’ … I was like, ‘Damn, dude, it’s 6 in the morning, I’m pretty tired, but let’s do it.’ Why not? He’s got that attitude and he pushed me hard, you know what I mean?” Tiafoe, who is from Maryland, said of the conversation with his old buddy Fritz, a Californian.
“Sometimes I play really bad, or whatever, and he does it, or the other way around, I think we’ve always pushed each other,” said Tiafoe, who has known Fritz since they competed in 14-and-under tournaments more than a decade ago. “Now I’m excited that we get to compete against each other in such an important match, and I’m happy for him. I know he’s happy for me.”
This sort of thing has seemed on the horizon for American men for a while now, thanks to a generation that includes 20th-seeded Tiafoe and 12th-seeded Fritz, along with Tommy Paul and two younger players also in their 20s, Ben Shelton and Sebastian Korda. All five are in the ATP top 20.
There are also five American women in the WTA top 20, including Emma Navarro, who reached the semifinals at Vlissingen Meadows with a victory on Tuesday as a follow-up her surprise from 2023 champion Coco Gauffand Jessica Pegula, who will face Polish number 1 Iga Swiatek in the quarterfinals on Wednesday evening.
Not since 1996 have five women and five men in the United States scored so high at the same time.
“It’s great for American tennis,” said Navarro, a 23-year-old who was born in New York, grew up in South Carolina and won an NCAA title as a freshman for the University of Virginia in 2021. “Of course I want to see myself and my countrymen go as far as we can in the tournament.”
This is a country that produced the Williams sisters and their combined 30 Grand Slam singles titles, other stars like Chris Evert and Billie Jean King, plus more recent major champions and runners-up like Gauff, Sloane Stephens, Sofia Kenin, Madison Keys and Danielle Collins. The country’s men have gone from the grand tradition of Don Budge and Bill Tilden long ago to multiple Slam champions like Pete Sampras, Andre Agassi, Jim Courier, John McEnroe, Jimmy Connors and Arthur Ashe — but the last major men’s winner was, famously, Roddick at the 2003 US Open, making the group’s current drought by far the longest in history.
“The standard is always going to be a Grand Slam champion,” said Martin Blackman, head of the U.S. Tennis Association’s player development program since 2015. “That’s always going to be the standard for American tennis.”
But it took a while before the men even came close.
When Tiafoe reached the last four in New York two years agoThe 2016 U.S. Open semifinal, defeating 22-time Slam champion Rafael Nadal along the way, marked the first time a male U.S. Open semifinalist had come from the host country since Roddick in 2006. Roddick reached the final that year before losing to — guess who? — Federer.
At the next major tournament after Tiafoe’s breakthrough, the 2023 Australian Open, Paul reached the semi-finals before losing to Novak Djokovic. And at last year’s US Open, Shelton was a semi-finalistwhere he knocked out Tiafoe in the quarterfinals, but then lost to Djokovic.
“(I) was always genuinely happy to see my friends succeed,” said Fritz, who was 0-4 in Grand Slam quarterfinals before edging two-time major runner-up Alexander Zverev in four sets on Tuesday. “And if anything, it always gave me the confidence that I can do it too.”
He was knocked out in the quarterfinals twice by Djokovic and once by Nadal.
Of Federer, 43, retiredNadal, 38, is playing sparingly after hip surgery and other injuries ( and not in New York ), and Djokovic, 37, who continues his first season since 2017 without at least one Grand Slam trophythere are more opportunities for new faces.
“We’ve been talking about it for years: ‘This is the group. This is the group.’ We’re talking about it openly. We’ve all been knocking on the door,” Tiafoe said. “You put yourself in positions, it’s just a matter of time. And the game is open. It’s not like it used to be, when you got to the quarterfinals, played Rafa and looked at flights.”
___
AP tennis: https://apnews.com/hub/tennis