Taylor Fritz and Frances Tiafoe to Face Off in Historic US Open Semi-Final

New York [US], September 4: For the first time since the 2005 US Open, an all-American men’s semi-final will feature at a Grand Slam tournament. On Friday, Taylor Fritz and Frances Tiafoe will compete in the US Open semi-finals, ensuring that one of them will advance to their first major final. The winner will become the first American man to reach a Grand Slam singles final since Andy Roddick at Wimbledon in 2009.

Fritz earned his spot in the semi-finals with a hard-fought victory over fourth seed Alexander Zverev, winning 7-6(2), 3-6, 6-4, 7-6(3) in the first quarter-final. Tiafoe followed by setting up a clash with his compatriot after Grigor Dimitrov retired with the score at 6-3, 6-7(5), 6-3, 4-1 in their quarter-final match.

The last all-American men’s semi-final at a major occurred 19 years ago at the US Open, where Andre Agassi defeated Robby Ginepri in a five-set thriller. Since then, there have been only two other all-American men’s semi-finals: Pete Sampras’s victory over Agassi at the 2002 US Open final and Agassi’s win against Sampras at the 2000 Australian Open semi-finals.

The winner between Fritz and Tiafoe will advance to Sunday’s final, aiming to become the first American man to claim a Grand Slam singles title since Andy Roddick’s 2003 US Open triumph. Fritz currently holds a 6-1 lead in their head-to-head series, with their most recent encounter last year in Acapulco, where Fritz won 6-3, 6-4.

Mixed Doubles Update

In other news, Indian tennis player Rohan Bopanna and his Indonesian partner Aldila Sutjiadi were defeated by the American duo of Taylor Townsend and Donald Young in the semi-final of the US Open 2024 tennis mixed doubles event. The Indo-Indonesian pair lost 6-3, 6-4 at the Louis Armstrong Stadium on Tuesday. The match lasted for 55 minutes.

Bopanna and Sutjiadi started strong but couldn’t maintain their momentum. The American pair won the first three games of the first set, and although Bopanna-Sutjiadi tied the set at 3-3, they eventually lost the set. The second set began evenly, but the Indo-Indonesian pair stumbled in the fifth game, giving away a crucial break point. Townsend-Young then held onto all their service games to win the set 6-4 and book a berth in the final.

Despite hitting four aces and making fewer unforced errors, Bopanna-Sutjiadi couldn’t overcome Townsend-Young’s 26 winners. Townsend-Young will now face Sara Errani and Andrea Vavassori of Italy in the Championship match. With Bopanna’s exit, India’s representation at the final Grand Slam of the year has come to an end. This year, the 44-year-old Indian tennis player matched his best mixed doubles result at the US Open but failed to take it one step higher.