Frances Tiafoe had every reason to soak in Tuesday night’s win at the U.S. Open. Instead, he spent the biggest moment of his match making sure Alex Michelsen wasn’t left alone in the aftermath.
Tiafoe survived an all-time comeback against the world No. 46 in a four-plus-hour quarterfinal, rallying from two sets down to beat Michelsen 5-7, 3-6, 7-5, 6-3, 7-6 (10-6). Michelsen, playing in his first Grand Slam quarterfinal, had the match in his grasp after taking the first two sets and building a 5-4 lead in the third. But in the game that could have sent him to the semifinals, he double-faulted twice, and Tiafoe seized the opening.
That set off a furious American surge and eventually sent the No. 11 seed into an all-American semifinal against Ben Shelton, who had just beaten Carlos Alcaraz in his own five-set battle. Tiafoe’s comeback was the kind that sticks in tournament memory, especially since no man had erased a two-set deficit in a U.S. Open quarterfinal since Roger Federer did it against Gael Monfils in 2014.
And yet, the lasting image wasn’t Tiafoe throwing both arms in the air after finally finishing the job. It was what came next.
After a brief celebration, Tiafoe went straight to the net and wrapped Michelsen in a long hug. Michelsen, 22, cried into Tiafoe’s shoulder while his fellow American tried to steady him. The moment hit even harder because of how fast Tiafoe moved from triumph to comfort.
“As soon as I hugged him, I seen he was crying already. And I was like, ‘Man, I know.
I’ve been there.’ .... He’s young, and he hasn’t been there.
We’re super tight. We’ve always had a great relationship, we laugh and joke all the time, he’s one of my good buddies on tour,” Tiafoe said of his post-match embrace with Michelsen.
“I know how much that hurts. I know how much he wanted it today. I told him, ‘I know you gonna be here so many more times, and I’m going to be in a rocking chair when you do.’”
The two have now met three times as professionals, with Tiafoe winning all three.
Michelsen later made clear how much the moment affected him.
“I don’t think anyone else could have made me cry in that moment, to be honest,” Michelsen later admitted.
For all the noise that followed the match, the emotional exchange between the two Americans cut through everything else. It was a reminder that even in the middle of a draining, high-stakes battle, sports can still leave room for empathy. Tiafoe earned the victory with grit, but the image that will linger is how he handled the pain on the other side of it.
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Ben Sheltons Wild U.S. Open Night Led To A Funny Rodman Moment
Ben Shelton spent one of the wildest nights of his career surviving a marathon at the U.S. Open, where the atmosphere inside the building stayed loud and tense well past midnight. The American outlasted defending champion Carlos Alcaraz in a five-set match that stretched four hours and 28 minutes and finally ended at 3:33 a.m. ET, the latest finish in tournament history, with Shelton taking a moment afterward to thank the crowd and the people who have backed him through the run.
For Alcaraz, the defeat brought obvious disappointment, even as he said he was proud of the way he competed. Shelton, meanwhile, moved on with a victory that carried plenty of emotional weight and a little extra attention beyond the tennis itself, thanks to the postmatch interview that had an unexpected, playful reaction from a familiar name in his orbit. [Read more 🡒]