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Karsten Moran for The New York TimesCarlos Alcaraz’s quarterfinal match ended at 2:50 a.m. on Thursday. But he’s 19, so he should be ready for Tiafoe on Friday, right?Alcaraz, a Spanish prodigy, has won four tournaments this year and, after starting 2022 ranked 32nd, is No. 4. More
Fans will get to see what one of the next great tennis rivalries could look like on Friday at 7 p.m.Those who have been worried about the state of men’s tennis when the likes of Roger Federer, Novak Djokovic and Rafael Nadal are retired have nothing to worry about.The next generation of men’s tennis is here, and fans will get a chance to see what one of the next great rivalries could look like when Frances Tiafoe, the 24-year-old American ranked No. 26, faces Carlos Alcaraz, the 19-year-old Spaniard ranked No. 4, in the semifinals of the U.S. Open.The two will play in Arthur Ashe Stadium on Friday at 7 p.m. Eastern time in what is expected to be a thrilling and intense match.Here’s what you need to know before their semifinal match on Friday:How did Frances Tiafoe and Carlos Alcaraz advance?Through five singles matches, Tiafoe has dropped only one set, which came in the fourth round against Nadal. Tiafoe defeated Marcos Giron of the United States in the first round, then Jason Kubler of Australia, Diego Schwartzman, an Argentine seeded 14th, Nadal and Andrey Rublev, a Russian seeded ninth, in the quarterfinal.Alcaraz arrives at the semifinals after back-to-back marathon five-set matches: He beat Jannik Sinner of Italy in a 5-hour, 15-minute quarterfinal match that ended at nearly 3 a.m. Thursday, and Marin Cilic of Croatia in the fourth round in a match that lasted nearly four hours.Alcaraz defeated Sebastian Baez of Argentina in the first round, Federico Coria of Argentina in the second and Jenson Brooksby of the United States in the third.Want to see the match in the stadium?Get ready to pay up. As of Thursday evening, tickets in the upper levels of Ashe Stadium were available from resellers on Ticketmaster for about $300. Tickets in the middle levels of the stadium were going for anywhere from about $1,000 to nearly $3,000.The best seats in the house? Those are nearly $7,000.Catching the match at home?Tune into ESPN on Friday. (If you’re in Canada, tune into TSN.)If that’s not enough for you, consider preparing yourself a Honey Deuce, the official cocktail of the U.S. Open. (Find the recipe here.)What can we expect?This match will be intense. Tiafoe and Alcaraz both play fierce tennis, and they’re quick up and down the court.Leading up to the U.S. Open, Tiafoe trained on his home court at the Junior Tennis Champions Center in College Park, Md. Komi Oliver Akli, a senior director of player development at the center, said that Tiafoe spent much of his sessions focusing on his fitness. Before Tiafoe beat Nadal in the fourth round, Akli told him to be physical in the match.“Make the match longer; make every point longer,” Akli said he told Tiafoe.Tiafoe won their only previous matchup last year in Barcelona on clay. According to Tipico Sportsbook, Alcaraz is the favorite to win Friday’s match, with -200 odds against +150 for the underdog Tiafoe. More
Frances Tiafoe’s rise has been the talk of the U.S. Open, but his path to the pros is difficult to follow for other young Black men hoping for a career in tennis.Frances Tiafoe has everything needed to be a difference maker in tennis.The swag. Calm and confident, Tiafoe danced off the court following his quarterfinal win on Wednesday, bathing in the roars from a packed crowd at Arthur Ashe Stadium.The strokes. Propulsive forehands and backhands. Easy, 135-mile-per-hour aces. Volleys with McEnroe-esque touch.The back story. The son of parents who emigrated from Sierra Leone, he learned the sport at the nonprofit tennis center that his contractor father, Constant, helped build.Then there’s the smile. Oh, that smile. Tiafoe flashes it quickly and often. Before matches, after matches, during matches. He exudes a joy for the game he is playing that is not only uncommon in professional sports, it’s magnetic.Until this week, Big Foe, as he is known, has flashed each of these qualities in teases, while never quite fulfilling his promise. But at this U.S. Open, Tiafoe, 24, has put it together. And by moving through the singles draw to Friday’s semifinals, his star turn has pulled in a far wider audience than is typical for tennis.“CONGRATS Young King!!! You earned it” LeBron James posted on Twitter after Tiafoe sprinted to the biggest win of his career in the round of 16, a four-set demolition of Rafael Nadal.Apologies to the rest of the field, but this tournament has so far been defined primarily by the celebration of two players: Serena Williams, who jolted the grounds to life during Week 1, and Tiafoe, the American fan favorite, who has kept the heartbeat pounding.Williams’s legacy is so pervasive that her power game can be seen in players throughout the women’s singles draw — particularly in the strong number of highly ranked Black women who first got into tennis because they saw themselves in Williams and her sister Venus.But men’s professional tennis has not seen a similar surge of Black talent. Can the game find a Black male player who will energize the next generations?At least one top Black male player from every generation since Arthur Ashe’s has lived with the same question.Yannick Noah, who won the French Open in 1983.MaliVai Washington, who made it to the Wimbledon finals in 1996.James Blake, the former top-five star who beat Nadal and then nearly defeated Andre Agassi at the 2005 U.S. Open.James Blake, who beat Rafael Nadal at the 2005 U.S. Open, was once a player tennis fans wondered would energize the next generation.Robert Caplin/New York TimesNow it seems to be Tiafoe’s turn. He can certainly move the needle with a win, but how much?Well, first off, any movement at all would be a start.Other than Tiafoe, there are a scant few Black men on the ATP Tour. And other than Tiafoe, Canada’s Félix Auger-Aliassime, 22, and the 36-year-old Frenchman Gaël Monfils, none appears capable of competing for major titles any time soon.What about in the college pipeline that continues to churn out solid professional players who are white?If you’re a regular reader of my column you may know that in the late 1980s I played college tennis at California-Berkeley. Back then, I was among a rough handful of Black collegiate players ranked in the top 100. It was basically the same small number in the 1990s — the same in the early 2000s.And now?“Not much has changed,” said Bryan Shelton, the first Division I college coach to win national titles in both men’s and women’s tennis. Shelton, an African American, was a star player at Georgia Tech during my era, and went on to have a solid professional career. Coaching Florida’s men to a championship last year, his team included his son, Ben, who made it into the singles and doubles draws at this year’s U.S. Open.In men’s college tennis, “There are maybe eight to 10 Black players in the top 100 rankings now,” he said. “So that’s a tick up, but let’s face it, only a slight one.”As we spoke, I remembered how, up through my early high school years, I used to be embarrassed to be seen with my tennis rackets. Tennis wasn’t exactly hip, and for a while I thought of going back to basketball or football, sports where I could easily blend in and not feel so alone.“Frances can help make tennis cool,” Shelton said. But then he cautioned, “At the same time, the roadblocks that existed before, exist now.”In many Black American communities, it’s hard to find tennis courts and nearly impossible to find easily accessible coaching. The United States Tennis Association is making strides in building up a network of junior programs across the country, through National Junior Tennis and Learning, started by Ashe in the 1960s to bring the game to underserved communities.Programs like the N.J.T.L. are making a dent in the push to develop players. Still, the cost of playing remains the most significant barrier for many. Becoming a nationally ranked junior requires group and private lessons, intense training and travel that can cost parents $30,000 per year, on the low end. And because players tend to need several years to develop their games, the layout could last six to 10 years.Chris Evert, a former player and an ESPN analyst, signed autographs while visiting kids from six Philadelphia-area chapters of National Junior Tennis and Learning, a program Arthur Ashe started in the 1960s to bring the sport to underserved communities.Jose F. Moreno/The Philadelphia Inquirer, via Associated PressHow many parents of any color can spend that kind of money?I’ve talked to numerous parents of young Black girls over the years who said they were willing to make the financial sacrifice because there are so many college opportunities — usually nine full scholarships per team at the Division I level — available for female tennis players.For the men? Shelton said Division I teams typically have only four and a half scholarships, and those are usually split among several players. Fewer scholarships means less incentive to pay the cost in time and money required to raise a college-level male player.Tiafoe was lucky. He was a prodigy — so good, so early that he turned pro at 17.What if Frances had not had the exposure and access to tennis in grade school that led to him becoming obsessed with the game?What if Martin Blackman, then director of the Junior Tennis Champions Center in College Park, Md., had not spotted Tiafoe’s talent and helped his family handle the costs and training?“We wouldn’t be here talking about him,” said Blackman, now the head of the U.S.T.A.’s player development program. In other words, Tiafoe wouldn’t be Big Foe, a semifinalist at the U.S. Open, getting a shoutout from LeBron James. Tiafoe might not even be a tennis player at all.Full disclosure: When the San Francisco Bay Area chapter of the N.J.T.L. was kind enough to give me its Arthur Ashe Award of Excellence in 2020, I interviewed Tiafoe over a videoconference for a celebratory gala.“I am the type of guy who can put two weeks together and win a Grand Slam,” he assured me, and I have to admit, at the time, with his ranking hovering around 50th in the world, I thought it a far-fetched statement.Now, I’m not so sure. More
Kader Nouni, called the “Barry White of tennis,” used to worry that his deep baritone distracted from the job, but now he’s comfortable in the umpire chair.Trailing 5-4 in the second set of her first-round match in this year’s U.S. Open, Venus Williams hit a forehand winner down the line to bring the game to 40-40. The chair umpire, Kader Nouni, let out a booming “deuce” that reverberated throughout Arthur Ashe Stadium.Some spectators snickered; others tried to imitate his deep, baritone voice.Nouni, who has been a part of the WTA for more than a decade, is used to the comments.When he was 16, Nouni called a girlfriend at her home and her father picked up the phone, he recalled during a recent interview at Bryant Park in Manhattan. The girl’s father handed the phone to his daughter, but the next day, Nouni’s girlfriend told him that her father didn’t believe they were the same age.“Because of your voice,” Nouni remembered her saying. “That’s how it all started.”These days, Nouni, a 46-year-old Frenchman, has become well known among those who follow tennis closely, and even casual fans are drawn to his resonant and melodic voice.Fabrice Chouquet, a senior vice president of competition and on-site operations for the WTA, said Nouni’s “unique style and booming voice have endeared him to players and fans alike.”Amanda Gaston, a tennis fan from Xenia, Ohio, attended a few matches under Nouni’s call in August at the nearby Western and Southern Open. She described Nouni as the “Barry White of tennis.”“When he’s in the chair, I immediately know it’s him,” Gaston said. “It’s a very distinctive, deep tone that you can immediately recognize.”Cliff Jenkins of Cincinnati said he and a friend try to imitate Nouni when he’s in the chair. “He’s got the velvet baritone voice — easy, effortless and full of richness,” Jenkins said.Such praise of his timbre used to worry Nouni — that he would be known more for his voice than his work, he said.“We always say that a good official is someone that we don’t talk about,” Nouni said. “I always wanted to be good and wanted people to speak more about being a good official.”These days, as a gold badge umpire, the highest level for tennis officials, Nouni feels he has proved himself in the business, and comments about his voice don’t bother him as much.“If they want to keep talking about my voice, I have no problem anymore with that,” he said.Several feet above the court in a lone chair, an umpire keeps score and enforces the rules of the game, but the job also extends to quieting boisterous crowds and regulating a player’s temperament on the court. That’s where a voice like Nouni’s is an effective tool in what he believes is one of the main keys to officiating — communication.“If you don’t know how to sell the call, it won’t help,” he said. “There’s always this pressure of input from the players. If they’re not happy with your calls, they’re going to get mad. If the crowd is unhappy with your calls, they’re going to get mad.”Before he was an umpire, Nouni’s first work in the sport was at a tennis club when he was 9 years old, doing such jobs as stringing rackets. Nouni and his brother wanted to play tennis, but lessons and court time were expensive for their mother, who raised them on her own in the southern French city of Perpignan after Nouni’s father died when he was 2.“It was not easy,” he said. “To be able to play tennis, we had to work.”When Nouni was 12, a tournament organizer was looking for officials for a local competition, and Nouni was asked if he wanted to work as an umpire for adult matches. He obliged, not realizing it would become his job for decades.“When you’re 12 years old and you have to deal with adults, and they have to listen to you, it’s kind of funny,” Nouni said.For a while, umpiring matches in local tournaments was just a summer job. But when Nouni was 16, he was invited to call matches at the national championship in Paris. The tournament was special for Nouni because he and the other teenage officials slept at the Roland Garros complex, and they were allowed to play on the clay courts when official matches weren’t taking place. For Nouni, who had lived with his family in public housing, staying at the home of the French Open was a remarkable experience.“We didn’t have much money,” Nouni said. “For me, being there at the French Open, even only for the summer, was fantastic.”Nouni’s performance during that tournament led to his selection as a line judge for the 1992 French Open. Since then, Nouni has been an umpire for dozens of Grand Slams and other tournaments around the world, including in the 2018 Wimbledon women’s singles final, where he was the chair umpire. Nouni has also been the chair umpire for five French Open women’s finals, in 2007, 2009, 2013, 2014 and 2021.Kader Nouni conducting the toss at the start of the women’s semifinal match between Serena Williams and Maria Sharapova at Wimbledon in 2015.Suzanne Plunkett/POOL/AFP via Getty ImagesWith so many memorable matches under his call, Nouni finds it difficult to single out one, but he always remembers his firsts — his first time in New York for the U.S. Open, his first time at the Olympics and his first time on Centre Court at Wimbledon.“Those moments are great,” Nouni said. “To be in the middle of the action, it’s priceless.”The job comes with downsides like being yelled at by players on occasion, often in high-profile matches, and especially in tournaments without the automated line calls of the U.S. Open. During a match at the 2012 Australian Open, David Nalbandian told Nouni to “shut up” after Nouni called a serve by John Isner as an ace, overruling the fault call from a line judge.“Let’s play,” Nouni said into the microphone, trying to regain control of the match.The match was delayed when Nalbandian called a tournament supervisor to the court. Nouni’s call stood, and after losing the match, Nalbandian told reporters that Nouni was not qualified to umpire.Nouni said tough calls can be difficult to let go, but he uses them as learning experiences.“You don’t think about it every day, but it’s somewhere, it’s part of you,” he said. “You don’t think about the best calls.”On the tour, Nouni usually calls two matches a day during the first week of a tournament, and he has other duties such as evaluating other umpires.“The first week is work, work, work, work,” Nouni said.But traveling around the world for the tour has given him the chance to see sights and explore. (A trip to Central Park and a Broadway show were on his to-do list while in New York.) The travel has also introduced him to people in many different cities.“I’ve been in the business for a while, so now I have my friends all around the world,” Nouni said.While the tour means a lot of travel days, Nouni said he does not plan to leave tennis soon.“You cannot do this job if you don’t like it,” Nouni said. “Impossible. You don’t survive. I think I will stop when I feel like it’s time to stop, and I’m not enjoying it anymore.”When that time comes, Nouni said jokingly, perhaps his voice would give him a shot at a different career.“Maybe Disney comes at me and asks me to do some voice-over for them.” More
College coaches can be found across the U.S. Open’s outer courts during the juniors competitions, displaying their school colors while searching for the next star recruit.On an outer court at the U.S. Open, tucked into a far corner by the perimeter fencing, Raquel Gonzalez Vilar powered shots over the net in her first-round match of the junior girls’ draw. Two men dressed in orange and black, wearing white hats emblazoned with the words “Oklahoma State,” cheered her on.On a nearby court, a woman in a bright orange shirt with a fierce tiger on it chatted with a man wearing a black Georgia Tech shirt and hat. Across from them were two men in light blue shirts and hats with Columbia University tennis logos.They were not fans out for a fun afternoon of tennis-star gazing. They are college coaches who were dotted across the far courts for the juniors competitions, purposely displaying their school colors while searching for the next star recruit or protecting a committed player from a rival’s watchful eye.“All the coaches come here,” said Jamea Jackson, the incoming women’s head coach at Princeton and a former professional player who also scoured these grounds as an assistant at Oklahoma State. “The U.S. Open is integral to your recruiting calendar.”While competition on the courts at the U.S. Open is intense, the battle among these coaches in the stands and pathways is sometimes just as cutthroat, with dozens of coaches showing up each year to stock their rosters.In some cases, coaches introduce themselves after the players have finished for the day to plant a seed with players and eventually sign them.In other cases, the players have committed to a school, and the coaches are there to offer support and encouragement — and to prove their undying devotion. The two men in orange and black — Chris Young, the women’s tennis head coach at Oklahoma State and Jaime Sanchez-Cañamares, his top lieutenant — were watching Gonzalez Vilar.The coaches had already persuaded Vilar to attend Oklahoma State, but she was thrilled that they had shown up and celebrated her first-round win by jumping into their arms.“I really enjoyed today because they helped me along and gave me energy,” she said through an interpreter. “It was nice to have them here with me.”If you are not looking for these coaches, they could slip by, unnoticed. If you are, they are easy to spot behind their crisp shirts and hats in school colors. Over on Court 5, a man in University of Washington gear watched a match intently. Another, in a U.C.L.A. shirt, sat nearby, and across the way Arizona, Arizona State, Northern Arizona, Pepperdine, Mississippi and many more were represented, too.The U.S. Open is not the only tournament to which coaches flock. They also pop up (in fewer numbers) at events in Europe. But it is the big junior tournaments in Kalamazoo, Mich., and San Diego and the Orange Bowl event near Miami that, along with the U.S. Open, teem with college coaches dressed like models for athletic-department logo-wear.“You never see college coaches without their gear on,” said Parsa Nemati, a college tennis recruiting expert and marketing consultant for Universal Tennis Rating, who also serves as the social media coordinator for the Tennis Channel.Billy Pate, center, of Princeton University, said the gear coaches wore turned them into “billboards.” Gabriela Bhaskar for The New York TimesBilly Pate, the men’s coach at Princeton, joked that the gear turned coaches into “billboards.” But it is important to fly the school’s colors, if only to grab the attention of the players.College tennis is an increasingly enticing alternative for young players who may not be ready for the rigors of the professional tour. For some players, college is an easy choice because of the potential opportunity for free coaching, free food, free training facilities, free medical attention and, in many cases, free education.According to Nemati, the recruiting expert, 21 of the 64 boys in the draw are committed to colleges and at least four more will soon declare. The number of girls is slightly lower, he said. The rest consider themselves good enough to turn professional or are still undecided.Most Americans and their families are aware of the college option. But Jordan Szabo, the assistant women’s coach at Texas A&M, said some of the international players were less aware and sought guidance.For Szabo, who is Australian, the U.S. Open is not very productive because so many coaches are there and most of the players are already spoken for. But like most coaches, he knows it is too important to pass up. On Monday, he had his eye on a hard-serving Australian girl and watched to evaluate the intangibles that do not appear on any rankings or stat sheets.Finding the right moment to say hello is an art, especially with other coaches lurking nearby. A coach may have to wait patiently while a rival filibusters with the player. No one wants to be the one to barge in on a conversation or appear too aggressive in front of the players.“It’s awkward,” Szabo said. “Yesterday, a girl walked up to me to say hi when another coach had been waiting. We had just spoken the day before, and she obviously felt it would be rude not to say hello. It can just be really awkward, but it’s part of it.”Pate, the Princeton men’s coach, said most coaches respectfully — but not always — backed off when a player had committed elsewhere. But there are other challenges to fend off. National tennis federations often do not want their players to attend college, preferring that they remain under the federation’s umbrella and then go pro. And agents, who profit when a player becomes a professional, can be an obstacle, too.Gina Suarez-Malaguti, a women’s associate head coach at Virginia, said she employed unique methods to gain a player’s interest and trust.Gabriela Bhaskar for The New York TimesGina Suarez-Malaguti, a women’s associate head coach at Virginia, has been recruiting at the U.S. Open for years. She said that at a big event such as the U.S. Open, juniors breathe the same intoxicating air and share the same hallways with top pros.“They are in a different cloud here,” Suarez-Malaguti said, “thinking anything is possible.”She employs unique methods to gain a player’s interest and trust.“I can’t tell you my secrets,” she smiled. “But, you’ve got to be creative.”Another danger can arise if a college-bound player does too well at a major event. Success at the top level can suddenly alter plans.“Sometimes, they need a bad loss to bring them back to earth and make them think about college,” said German Dalmagro, the associate head coach of the Illinois women’s team.Dalmagro, who also coached at Nebraska and Kansas, said there were many more coaches at the U.S. Open now than in previous years. The big tournaments are like conventions, and many coaches get along well. Some have even worked together at stops in their careers. Most greet one another cordially, but in an optimal world, each would be the only one there, with unfettered access to players.“We have a joke,” said Howard Endelman, the head men’s coach at Columbia, who was on site to watch his top recruit, Michael Zheng. “We always say, ‘Hi, nice to see you.’ But they don’t want to see me here, and I don’t want to see them.”Alexis Casati, an associate head coach of Georgia Tech women’s tennis, watching a girls’ match.Gabriela Bhaskar for The New York TimesThe big tournaments are like conventions, and many coaches get along well.Gabriela Bhaskar for The New York TimesCoaches also use social media, email and texts to reach out to players, beginning on June 15 of their sophomore year in high school. Matchmaking services, like Stars and Stripes Tennis Recruitment, connect under-scouted players, usually from overseas, with colleges. Some players fish for scholarships by listing preferences on websites.Daniil Medvedev, last year’s U.S. Open men’s champion and the current world No. 1, used such a tactic when he was a little-known junior, listing every Ivy League college as a school of interest to him.When Endelman saw that, he hopped on a plane for a junior tournament in Linz, Austria, to watch Medvedev. Endelman laughs at himself now, knowing what Medvedev has become.“I looked at his strokes, which are unorthodox, and I was like, ‘I don’t know,’” he said with a chuckle. “Shows what I know.”But he also knew enough to be on hand to support Zheng, lest some other coach in different colors gets too close. More
The Spanish teenager needed five sets and more than five hours to reach the semifinals in a match that ended shortly before 3 a.m. in New York.It was the latest finish ever at the U.S. Open, played in a city that purportedly never sleeps, but Carlos Alcaraz and Jannik Sinner made it well worth staying up into the wee hours.In one of the best (and longest) matches ever contested at this Grand Slam tournament in New York, Alcaraz, a 19-year-old Spanish prodigy, fought off a match point in the fourth set to defeat Sinner, a 21-year-old Italian prodigy, 6-3, 6-7 (7), 6-7 (0), 7-5, 6-3, to advance to the semifinals.“I always say you have to believe in yourself all the time, and that hope is the last thing you lose,” Alcaraz said in an on-court interview early Thursday morning. “I just believed in myself and believed in my game.”The match, an instant-classic quarterfinal, lasted 5 hours and 15 minutes, the second longest Open match ever, and finished at 2:50 a.m., 24 minutes later than the previous record shared by three matches.The suspense and tension was that constant, the quality of the shotmaking and the effort that transcendent.Alcaraz, seeded third, and Sinner, seeded 11th, have long been considered the future of tennis, but they looked much more like the present after the match started on Wednesday night, setting a torrid pace from the baseline and chasing down each other’s drop shots and would-be winners.Alcaraz, an acrobatic speedster from Murcia, Spain, will face Frances Tiafoe of the United States on Friday.Hiroko Masuike/The New York TimesBut only Alcaraz, an acrobatic speedster from Murcia, will have a chance to make his big breakthrough at this unusually wide-open tournament. He will face Frances Tiafoe of the United States on Friday in what will be the first Grand Slam semifinal for both men. In the other semifinal, Casper Ruud of Norway will face Karen Khachanov of Russia.None of those four men have won a major singles title: no dishonor and no surprise in a long-running era that has been dominated by the Big 3 of Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal and Novak Djokovic.But neither Federer nor Djokovic played this year in New York, and Nadal, short on matches and perhaps even a little short on inspiration after a taxing season, was upset in the fourth round by Tiafoe, a flashy 24-year-old who is the first American man since Andy Roddick in 2006 to advance this far at his home Grand Slam event.Tiafoe will surely have the majority of the support in Arthur Ashe Stadium, with its capacity of nearly 24,000. He will also have the advantage of extra rest.His three-set match with Andrey Rublev was played in the day session, which allowed Tiafoe to settle in for the evening at his hotel as Alcaraz and Sinner pushed each other historically deep into the night.The match was the second longest ever played at the U.S. Open, behind only the 1992 semifinal between Stefan Edberg and Michael Chang, won by Edberg in 5 hours and 26 minutes.But Alcaraz, who fell onto his back and dropped to the court after closing out the match with a service winner, looked anything but pessimistic as he tapped his chest and thanked the few thousand fans who stayed until the finish.The digital clock on the court showed that it was just about 3 a.m., but it wasn’t too early to look ahead to his next match.“It’s going to be really, really tough,” Alcaraz said at a news conference that finished shortly before 4 a.m. “Everybody knows the level of Frances. He has beaten Rafa Nadal; Rublev in three sets. He’s playing unbelievable right now: high confidence. He loves the crowd. He loves this court.”Despite Alcaraz’s youth, this is becoming a habit. His previous match against Marin Cilic — another five-set duel — also concluded after 2 a.m., and the late-night finishes will almost certainly revive the debate about the wisdom of putting athletes of any age in this position.The U.S. Open is not alone: The Australian Open, the first major of the season, has had even later finishes. But with a night session that begins at 7 p.m. (or later) and typically includes a best-of-three-set women’s match and a best-of-five-set men’s match, there is always a risk of sleep deprivation.Changing the start times or programming could address the situation, but it must be balanced with the strong emphasis on giving the men and women equal billing on the main show court. Night sessions are also an important source of revenue for the majors and many other tour events (the French Open recently added one as well in 2021).But Alcaraz, who is in the middle of a breakthrough season, has already demonstrated that he can recover from one nocturnal marathon. Now he will get a second opportunity. He is the youngest man to reach the semifinals of the U.S. Open since Pete Sampras, an American who was 19 in 1990 when he went on to win the title.Alcaraz grew up playing almost exclusively on clay in Murcia, in southeastern Spain, at a local club developed by his grandfather. But in recent years, he has begun training much more often on hardcourts at the JC Ferrero Equelite Sport Academy in Villena, about 60 miles away, where Alcaraz boards and works with his coach, Juan Carlos Ferrero, a former world No. 1 for whom the academy is named.Though Alcaraz beat Nadal and Djokovic to win the Masters 1000 title on clay in Madrid this year, and reached the quarterfinals of the French Open, his best results so far in his short career have come on hardcourts. He reached the quarterfinals last year in his debut U.S. Open and reached the semifinal of the BNP Paribas Open in March before winning the Miami Open.Alcaraz is the youngest man to reach the semifinals of the U.S. Open since Pete Sampras, who was 19 in 1990 when he went on to win the title.When Jannik Sinner served for the match at 5-4, he could not seal the deal.Hiroko Masuike/The New York TimesHe has an all-action style, and he frequently slides into near splits even on a hardcourt, a surface that allows him to make fast changes in direction and get the full benefit of his quickness.Sinner, who defeated Alcaraz in July in the fourth round at Wimbledon, repeatedly had to hit three or four terrific shots close to the lines to secure points as Alcaraz stretched and skidded to retrieve balls that would have escaped the reach of lesser talents.Sinner is not as quick, not as much of a showman, but he has his own enviable strengths, including an ability to produce smooth, seemingly effortless power and precision by punching and counterpunching near or inside the baseline.Both young men squandered opportunities that could have made their night easier (and shorter), but that was due, in part, to the resilience and skills of the opposition.When Sinner served for the match at 5-4, he could not seal the deal, failing to convert his lone match point at 40-30 when he missed a backhand off a strong second-serve return. Sinner then missed a forehand swing volley just wide to allow Alcaraz to even the score at 5-5.Alcaraz swept through the next two games to force a fifth set, which began at 2:05 a.m. after four and a half hours of toe-to-toe tennis.And yet the level did not drop, as both men continued hustling to all corners of the court and making magic on the move.“I was ready for a tough, tough battle,” Sinner said. “I feel physically for sure more ready to play these kind of matches for hours and hours.”Despite the next-generation masterwork that was on display early into Thursday morning, there is no guarantee in elite sports, certainly not in tennis, that the promise will be fully realized over the long run.For an example, Alcaraz and Sinner needed to look no further than one of the spectators at Ashe Stadium: Juan Martin del Potro, the 2009 U.S. Open men’s champion.A towering Argentine with thunderous strokes, he looked likely to take his place alongside the Big 3, only to see his career interrupted and ultimately ended by major wrist and knee injuries.Alcaraz is in the middle of a breakthrough season.Hiroko Masuike/The New York TimesThe lesson is clear: Seize the championship opportunities when they arise, regardless of your age or your upside.And though both Alcaraz and Sinner had this marvelous match in their grasp as Wednesday night turned into Thursday, only Alcaraz got to experience the mixture of euphoria and relief that comes with this kind of special victory.“I think this one will hurt for quite a while,” said Sinner in his very-late-night news conference.Alcaraz can still win the U.S. Open, but first he had better get some sleep. 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At the junior tennis club in College Park that gave Tiafoe his start and where he still trains, coaches and aspiring players cheer him on, and never stop working.COLLEGE PARK, Md. — At the Junior Tennis Champions Center, Frances Tiafoe, the young American who has barged into the men’s singles semifinals at the U.S. Open by playing fearless, joyful tennis, simply goes by Frances.On Wednesday afternoon, as Tiafoe played his quarterfinal match against Andrey Rublev of Russia, the center’s students, coaches and staff members broke from their regular routines and threw a party for the facility’s most popular alumnus, and a rapidly rising tennis star they know as a friend.On an indoor clay court, sitting on folding chairs — but more often standing in excitement — more than 40 people watched Tiafoe’s match on a large inflatable screen. They hollered and held their breath as Tiafoe overpowered Rublev in straight sets to become the first American man to make the U.S. Open semifinals since 2006, when Andy Roddick lost to Roger Federer in the final.Amid the cheers for Tiafoe’s gargantuan serves and deft drop volleys, no one was far removed from the spirit of the center itself and the hard work it teaches, which got Tiafoe, 24, this far in the Grand Slam tournament. Between sets, at a coach’s urging, players raced to the courts for a few minutes of practice.‘He’s Always Happy on the Court’Komi Oliver Akli, 50, the center’s senior director of player development, trained with Tiafoe before the U.S. Open. “He was on the court every day, trying to put some work in, and he was working so hard,” Akli said.Erin Schaff/The New York TimesKomi Oliver Akli, a senior director of player development at the J.T.C.C. who immigrated to the United States from Togo in 1996, started working at the center in 2000, and met Tiafoe just a few years later when he was 5 years old.From a young age, Akli said he could tell Tiafoe had the skills to go far in professional tennis. “You don’t have to tell him too much stuff,” he said. “You just have to keep it simple for him. He just enjoys himself when he plays. He doesn’t care what it is.”There’s a room inside the facility, next to a fitness center and across the hall from the restrooms, with two desks, a cabinet and a refrigerator. Today, it serves as the offices of the center’s general manager and director of tennis. Until several years ago, the office still had two beds where Tiafoe, his twin brother Franklin, and their father Constant slept when Frances was a boy.Constant, who emigrated from Sierra Leone in the early 1990s, took a construction job on the crew that built the tennis facility, and he stayed on as a maintenance worker after it was completed. His starting salary was $21,000 a year, and the staff allowed him and his twin boys to sleep in the center a few nights a week and use the courts.When they weren’t at J.T.C.C., the twins stayed with their mother, Alphina, who also emigrated from Sierra Leone, but met Constant in the United States. Other relatives lived in a one-bedroom apartment in Hyattsville, just a few miles south of College Park.Since they met, Akli, now 50, said Frances Tiafoe hasn’t changed. “He never gets upset,” Akli said. “Never. He’s always happy on the court, enjoying himself on the court.”The J.T.C.C. is a nonprofit club that is focused on encouraging and supporting players from diverse backgrounds and concentrates on recruiting promising players from its own backyard.“It’s not a typical tennis club,” Joe Wilkerson, a vice president of the center, said. “We’re not a club. We’re not an academy. We’re a hybrid of all those things, plus what we do with community outreach in D.C.”It has 32 indoor and outdoor courts with hard, green clay and red clay surfaces, and offers programs and classes for various skill levels and ages, from beginner adults to children and teenagers aspiring to become the next Serena Williams, Roger Federer or Frances Tiafoe.After beating Rafael Nadal in the fourth round of the U.S. Open on Monday, Tiafoe said in a news conference that “it wasn’t supposed to be like this,” adding that he worked hard for his parents.“I just had a big passion for the game,” he said. “Not even mainly for me, but to do it for them.”Watching Tiafoe defeat Nadal was a special moment for Akli, especially because of the training they did together in College Park leading up to the tournament, Akli said.“He was on the court every day, trying to put some work in, and he was working so hard,” Akli said, adding that Tiafoe was especially focused on his fitness to go far in matches. “He was there with Rafa the whole time.”A U.S. Open Watch Party, With PracticeErin Schaff/The New York Times“He’s very much available to everybody when they’re here,” Joe Wilkerson, a vice president of the tennis center, said of Tiafoe.Erin Schaff/The New York TimesAfter Tiafoe took the first set against Rublev in a tiebreaker, Akli called out to the students, “Alright, guys. Let’s go.”The students jumped from their seats, grabbed their gear, and ran toward the facility’s indoor hard courts. Akli told the players to warm up and hit with a partner.“Then we can go back and watch another set,” he said.While the players hit forehands down the lines and cross-court backhands and forehands, Akli would occasionally check his phone, nestled in a basket of tennis balls, for the score of Tiafoe’s match.He was pleased to see Tiafoe tied at 4-4 in the second set, adding that Tiafoe had trained to go deep in sets if necessary. “I like the way he’s holding right now,” Akli said. “He knows his fitness.”Among the players who worked with Akli on Wednesday was Imani Jean, a 16-year-old who trains at the center full time. Imani starts her day at 7:30 a.m. for classes, tennis practice, fitness training, more tennis, and then more classes.Imani, who wants to play tennis at a Division I university before becoming a professional, said that she is inspired knowing she trains on the same courts where Tiafoe practiced and lived.“It definitely reassures me that I can get to that level,” she said.Even on days when he’s not playing in a tournament or training at the facility, Tiafoe’s presence is all around the grounds of the J.T.C.C., with framed pictures from when he was younger and enlarged news articles on the walls of the facility. Inside the lobby hangs a framed letter, with Tiafoe writing what he would have wanted to tell Arthur Ashe, the tennis star who died in 1993, after winning the ATP Ashe Humanitarian Award in 2020.“I know this is not just an award,” Tiafoe wrote. “It is a tremendous honor and a massive responsibility. I am not just that smiley kid on the rise anymore. I know I need to carry the torch and make a difference in the world.”Tiafoe went on to write that he wanted to be an example to younger children and “paint a picture for them that they did not know was possible.”“I want to help them make that a reality,” he wrote. “You showed so many of us the way, and now I want to pay it forward.”‘He Knows Them All By Name’Amari O’Brien, a 16-year-old who trains at the center full time, said she considers Tiafoe to be a friend.Erin Schaff/The New York TimesWilkerson said that when Tiafoe is there, he makes himself open and accessible to the young players.“He knows them all by name,” Wilkerson said. “He’s very much available to everybody when they’re here. It’s probably sometimes to his own fault.”Amari O’Brien, 16, who trains at the center full time, said she considers Tiafoe to be a friend.“It’s just it’s kind of bizarre to think that he trained here,” Amari said, adding that she hopes that she can one day be in the same position as Tiafoe.Amari came to practice at the J.T.C.C. for two weeks in 2019, and earned a scholarship to train full time. Her parents eventually moved to Maryland from Michigan to support her.Wilkerson said that scholarships at the center help make tennis accessible to more people.“That is our ultimate goal,” Wilkerson said. “If a kid shows the promise and the passion and the love and respect for the game, then we will make sure that we can fund them and get them through the program.”It’s not just children and teenagers who come to the center. Charles Abety, 50, who lives in nearby Greenbelt, Md., started taking tennis lessons at the J.T.C.C. about four months ago.“I wanted to have something that I could do that I love,” Abety said while watching Tiafoe’s match, adding that he’s “very much” inspired by Tiafoe.After more training in the afternoon, the players returned to the watch party to see Tiafoe in the third set against Rublev. When Tiafoe won the set and clinched the match, advancing to the semifinals with an ace, the players, coaches, staff members, and parents of players at the center jumped to their feet and clapped.“Let’s go, J.T.C.C.” Akli yelled.But the applause and cheers were brief. The players didn’t stick around for Tiafoe’s post-match remarks on the court. They ran to grab their gear again. It was time to train.Erin Schaff/The New York Times More
Michelle V. Agins/The New York TimesCaroline Garcia, 28, of France, beat Gauff on Tuesday, adding to an exceptional summer that has included victories in Cincinnati, Warsaw and Bad Homburg, Germany. She also reached Wimbledon’s round of 16, but this will be her first Grand Slam semifinal. More
