Tiafoe, Francis (1998- )

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    Alcaraz Beats Sinner in Late, Late US Open Match

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    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 Wimbledon, American Men Are Putting on a Fourth of July Bash

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      Nearly everywhere one looked on Wednesday and Thursday, an American man was slamming or slicing or grinding his way into the final 32, and it feels like the 1990s.Taylor Fritz, left, Francis Tiafoe and Tommy Paul are three of eight American men ranked in the top 50. Shaun Botterill/Getty Images; Clive Brunskill/Getty Images; Justin Setterfield/Getty ImagesWIMBLEDON, England — Just in time for the Fourth of July weekend, the American men are throwing a party on British soil.As night fell on Thursday at the All England Club, eight American men were set to qualify for the third round of the prestigious Wimbledon tournament, accounting for 25 percent of the final 32 spots. That is the most American men in the third round at the event since 1995, when nine qualified in the Sampras-Agassi-Courier-Chang heydays. It is also the most in any Grand Slam tournament since the U.S. Open in 1996.Nearly everywhere one looked on Wednesday and Thursday, an American man was slamming or slicing or grinding his way into the final 32, and one more will clinch his spot Friday. The sun has seemingly set on the era when every male American player had a big serve and a forehand and not much else.Some were familiar faces, like John Isner, bashing his way past the hometown favorite Andy Murray. But several were part of the next wave of rising Yanks in their mid-20s — the clique of Taylor Fritz, Tommy Paul and Francis Tiafoe that first bonded as teenagers at a national training center in Florida. And then there were a couple from the wave after that (Jenson Brooksby and Brandon Nakashima) who are still a couple years away from needing a daily shave. Two Americans, Maxime Cressy and Jack Sock, one new to the scene, the other a veteran, were dueling for the last available spot until rain interrupted their match on No. 3 Court on Thursday.Brandon Nakashima won his second-round match against Denis Shapovalov of Canada on Thursday.Toby Melville/Reuters“It’s been a long, long progression,” said Martin Blackman, the former pro who is the general manager of player development for the United States Tennis Association.Now before anyone stateside rushes out to the liquor store to get some Pimm’s on ice for a championship celebration, it is worth noting that no one expects any of these players to actually win the men’s singles title, at least not this year. American men’s tennis is deep but light on the top.The U.S. now has eight men in the top 50 and 13 in the top 100, more than any other country. Arguably the most promising of the lot, Sebastian Korda, son of the former world No. 2 Petr Korda, had to withdraw from Wimbledon 10 days ago with shin splints.“Didn’t give me anything to fish for,” Denis Shapovalov of Canada said of Nakashima, who beat him in four sets Thursday.Despite the stampede this week, there are no Americans in the top 10 and just two in the top 20 — Fritz and Reilly Opelka. Russia and Spain each have two players in the top 10. Spain, the best tennis country of the last decade, has four players in the top 20.But for a country whose male talent stock has long been seen as fairly lacking and is without a Grand Slam tournament champion since Andy Roddick won the U.S. Open in 2003, depth represents significant progress. It also serves as a kind of motivational tool. A friendly competition has emerged between the Americans in their mid-20s, who are led by Fritz, and the ones who have just reached the legal drinking age in the United States, or are not there yet, to be the first to play into the final rounds of a Grand Slam tournament.“They’re great for us,” Paul, 25, said of Brooksby, Korda, both 21, and Nakashima, 20. “They push us.”“For tennis to grow, we’re going to need some winners on the men’s side,” he added.The U.S.T.A. knows that as well. For years, it has been trying to hone a system to help develop players that will work in a vast country with more than 330 million people and plenty of competition from more popular sports that are cheaper for good young athletes to pursue.Taylor Fritz is the highest-ranked American men’s player at No. 14.Alastair Grant/Associated PressIn Europe, especially Eastern Europe, young teenagers with promise often leave home for academies. The academic and psychological support can be thin. A “Lord of the Flies,” sink-or-swim environment persists. Despite its success there in producing some formidable talent and champions, including Novak Djokovic, that model was never going to work with American parents.Instead, over the last decade the organization has tried to create a trout farm rather than find a unicorn. It developed a three-tiered program of local, regional and national camps that bring together top talent throughout the year but also allow kids to stay home for as long as possible and work with their own coaches. Airfare to the camps isn’t included, but just about everything else is, even some money for private coaches to attend sometimes so they don’t feel squeezed out of the process as a young player gets older and better.There is no one-size-fits-all approach. During the crucial years of development between the ages of 15 and 22, some players choose to work with U.S.T.A. coaches and trainers at their training centers in Orlando, Fla., or Carson, Calif., outside Los Angeles. Fritz was a part of the U.S.T.A. program for six years, Paul for five, Opelka for four and Tiafoe for three, Blackman said.Others, such as Korda, Nakashima and Brooksby, choose to remain largely outside the system, but they still can qualify for financial support and come to the occasional camp or show up at the training center for competition.Blackman also does not want the organization to preach a certain style of play. Cressy’s serve-and-volley game is just as valued as Brooksby’s finesse, Tiafoe’s serve-and-forehand power, and Nakashima’s all-court approach.At one such camp, a national gathering in Boca Raton, Fla., a decade ago, Fritz, Paul, and Tiafoe first bonded.“It was just really boring in those dorms, nothing to do, so we didn’t have much choice,” Fritz said recently.Fritz, with his big feet and mop of hair, and the least advanced game of the group, quickly became the group punching bag, friendly punching of course.“Big, goofy guy like that, you know he was going to end up being the target,” Tiafoe said.Jenson Brooksby beat Benjamin Bonzi of France on Thursday to advance to the third round.Ryan Pierse/Getty ImagesPaul said Fritz took it well. Fritz also saw that members of his new clique were better at tennis than he was, and he began working harder to catch up. Within a few years, he had pushed ahead. He is now the top-ranked American man at No. 14 and the only one of the younger set to have won a Masters 1000 tournament, the level just below the Grand Slams, emerging at Indian Wells, Calif., earlier this year.They remain close friends and genuinely invested in each other’s success, which helps during a long season filled with travel. Paul has been on the road for nearly 10 weeks.“I’m so homesick I want to throw up,” he said Thursday.Text threads and group dinners, sometimes fancy, sometimes burgers and pizza, and lengthy bull sessions help. Tiafoe made the final at a tournament in Portugal earlier this year. As he came off the court following each win, he would find congratulatory notes on his phone from the posse.A big and extremely difficult task for the next generation and the one right behind them still lies ahead — getting into the top 10 and becoming fixtures in the last matches of the biggest tournaments, the way American women, led by the Williams sisters, have performed for years.It’s getting closer.“I expect us to do well in all of these tournaments now,” Paul said. “It’s all about winning one more match and going one round deeper.”Paul has never made the second week of a Grand Slam. On Friday, on the first day of a third round with plenty of American company, he will get another chance. More