This was technicolor tennis that leaped off your screen, grabbed your throat and clutched at your heart.
This was technicolor tennis that leaped off your screen, grabbed your throat and clutched at your heart.
Even in Friday’s open air, this feel-good matchup on Ashe created a wall of emotion that provided a perfect soundtrack to this Star-Spangled U.S. Open semifinal match that will not soon be forgotten.
Two 26-year-old Americans, friends from adolescence for more than a dozen years, were in the crucible. Or perhaps it’s better to describe them as being in the ring, a squared circle of 78 x 27 dimensions.
Frances Tiafoe and Taylor Fritz were gladiators, they were entertainers, they were elite tennis players who put on a show in Queens all while operating under the weight of history with each competitor striving to advance to the first Grand Slam of final of either’s career.
It was not winner-take-all but it was winner now having the chance to take all by advancing to Sunday’s final against the No. 1 seed and top-ranked player in the world, Jannik Sinner, after his 7-5, 7-6 (3), 6-2 semifinal victory over Jack Draper.
And it will be Fritz facing the Italian after emerging with a 4-6, 7-5, 4-6, 6-4, 6-1 victory, roaring back after pretty much chasing the match for nearly two hours in an epic to become the first American man to, well, you most certainly have this committed to memory, the way Yankees fans have “2009” etched into their gray matter.
So here is the condensed version after two decades-plus:
That would be Fritz, ranked 12th in the world, becoming the first native-born Yank to advance to a Slam final since Andy Roddick’s 2009 Wimbledon defeat against Roger Federer that included a 16-14 decisive fifth set tiebreak.
