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      Dick Savitt Dies at 95; Won Australian and Wimbledon Tennis Titles in 1951

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      He was the second American to win both Grand Slam tournaments in the same year, and he was ranked among the world’s top 10 players four times.Dick Savitt, the tennis Hall of Famer who won the men’s singles championships at the 1951 Australian and Wimbledon Grand Slam tournaments but dropped out of full-time play a year later while at the height of his game, died on Friday at his home in Manhattan. He was 95.His death was confirmed by his son, Bob.Savitt became the second American to win both the Australian and Wimbledon men’s titles in a calendar year. Don Budge had accomplished the feat in 1938. Only Jimmy Connors (1974) and Pete Sampras (1994 and 1997) have matched them.Savitt was ranked among the top 10 American players six times in the 1950s and among the world’s top 10 four times, even though after 1952 he confined his Grand Slam tournament play to the United States Nationals at Forest Hills, Queens. He bested leading American players in domestic tournaments while pursuing a business career.He was inducted into the International Tennis Hall of Fame in 1976.In 1951, Savitt defeated Ken McGregor, a native of Australia, in the Australian championships. “The Australian was a big shock to the tennis world,” Savitt told Nancy Gill McShea in an interview for the International Tennis Hall of Fame 60 years later. “It put me on the map.”He reached the semifinals of the 1951 French championships but lost to Jaroslav Drobny, who went on to win the singles title. He needed only 61 minutes to defeat McGregor again in the Wimbledon final, becoming the first Jewish player to win the Wimbledon singles championship.Savitt appeared on the cover of Time magazine’s Aug. 27, 1951, issue on the eve of the U.S. Nationals, the forerunner of the U.S. Open. “What he has got is a simple, overpowering attack; a smashing serve and deep, hard-hit ground strokes that keep his opponent scrambling in the backcourt, on the defensive,” Time wrote.Savitt, who stood a sturdy 6-foot-3 and often wore down his opponents, reached the semifinals at Forest Hills. Hampered by a knee infection, he lost to his fellow American Vic Seixas.Savitt was selected for the 1951 U.S. Davis Cup team, which was hoping to avenge its loss to Australia in the 1950 cup finals, formally known as the challenge round. Savitt, ranked as the squad’s No. 1 player, won singles matches in the early rounds. But Frank Shields, the nonplaying captain of the team, removed him from cup play afterward and replaced him with Ted Schroeder, who had been in semiretirement. Shields said he hadn’t been happy with Savitt’s overall play in the previous few months.Savitt and many of his fellow American players were stunned that he was passed over, but Savitt chose not to comment on being cut. The United States lost to Australia, 3-2, in the challenge round.The next year, Savitt reached the semifinals of the Australian championships. After losing there to McGregor, he said he was stepping away from the international tour.But he won the U.S. National Indoor Championships in 1952, 1958 and 1961, becoming the first player to capture that title three times. In 1961, he captured singles and doubles gold medals at the Maccabiah Games, the Jewish Olympics, held in Israel. He later helped develop tennis centers there.Savitt at his home in Manhattan last year.Carly Zavala for The New York TimesTennis trophies on a bookshelf at Savitt’s home. He was ranked among the top 10 American players six times in the 1950s.Carly Zavala for The New York TimesRichard Savitt was born on March 4, 1927, in Bayonne, N.J., the only child of Morris and Kate (Hoberman) Savitt. His father was a food broker who had a business that pursued marketing opportunities for producers.He taught himself to play tennis in his early teens when he was a ball boy at the Berkeley Tennis Club in Orange, N.J., mostly by watching some of the game’s greatest players, including Jack Kramer, Bobby Riggs and Pancho Segura, competing there in New Jersey state tournaments.“I had never seen tennis like that before,” Savitt said in his Hall of Fame interview. “I immediately got Don Budge’s book on tennis to learn how to hit strokes correctly.”But Savitt’s first love was basketball. When his family moved to El Paso in the early 1940s, hoping that the warmer weather would ease his mother’s skin problems, he became an all-state high school basketball player. But he also continued to play tennis and was highly ranked nationally in the junior division.Savitt entered Cornell University in 1946 on a basketball scholarship after serving during World War II in the Navy, which had assigned him to play on basketball teams to entertain service personnel. But injuries hampered him, so he turned to tennis once more and won Eastern collegiate singles and doubles titles. He graduated in 1950 with a degree in economics.In addition to his son, from his marriage to Louise Liberman, which ended in divorce in 1963, Savitt is survived by three grandchildren. His second wife, Annelle Warwick Hayes, died in 2013. Savitt and his son, Bob, who had played on the tennis team at the College of Wooster in Ohio, won the U.S. Father and Son doubles title in 1981.Savitt worked on rigs drilling for oil in Texas and Louisiana and then became a longtime investment banker in New York after leaving full-time tennis.The amateur tennis world where he flourished offered trophies for victories, but no prize money.“You either kept playing and taking under-the-table type payments or you ended up teaching at a club,” Savitt told The Star-Ledger of Newark in 2011. “I didn’t want to do that. I had to decide to keep playing a few more years or get out of the game and go to work in a normal position. That’s what I did.”Maia Coleman More

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      Boris Becker Returns to Germany After Release From British Prison

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      The tennis champion left for his home country after serving time in Britain for hiding his assets in a bankruptcy case.Boris Becker, the three-time Wimbledon champion, returned to his home country of Germany on Thursday after he was freed from prison in Britain, his lawyer said.The Southwark Crown Court in London sentenced Mr. Becker to 30 months in prison in April for hiding his assets after he was declared bankrupt.Mr. Becker’s lawyer, Christian-Oliver Moser, said in a statement that the former tennis player left for Germany after he was released from prison. “Thus he has served his sentence and is not subject to any restrictions in Germany,” Mr. Moser said.Mr. Becker, 55, was sentenced to prison after he was found guilty of four charges under the Insolvency Act in Britain, where he had lived since 2012.Neither Mr. Becker’s lawyer nor the British authorities said whether he had been ordered to leave the country.“Any foreign national who is convicted of a crime and given a prison sentence is considered for deportation at the earliest opportunity,” the Home Office, which oversees immigration in Britain, said in a statement.Under Britain’s Early Removal Scheme, foreign nationals who are imprisoned in Britain and are subject to deportation can be removed from the country up to 12 months before they would have otherwise been eligible for release. From 2020 to 2021, the Home Office removed more than 1,100 people under this program.After Mr. Becker was declared bankrupt in June 2017, he was legally obligated to disclose all of his assets so they could be used to pay his creditors. The London court found in April that he had concealed, failed to disclose and removed assets, including a loan of 825,000 euros (around $875,000) and property valued at €426,930.90 (around $453,000), according to Britain’s Insolvency Service.As he tried to fend off creditors, Mr. Becker made an unsuccessful bid for diplomatic immunity from the British courts in 2018, after the Central African Republic had in April of that year named him as its attaché to the European Union for sports, culture and humanitarian affairs.Nearly two decades earlier, in 2002, Mr. Becker was sentenced to two years’ probation and fined nearly $300,000 after being found guilty of income tax evasion in Munich.The court battles followed a stellar career in tennis.In 1985, Mr. Becker, then 17 years old, became the youngest champion in the history of men’s singles at Wimbledon. He won six Grand Slam titles, including three at Wimbledon, before he retired from tennis in 1999. He was a frequent commentator for the BBC at Wimbledon and coached Novak Djokovic, a 21-time Grand Slam singles champion, for three seasons. More

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      The Billionaire Trying to Turn Kazakhstan Into a Tennis Nation

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      Bulat Utemuratov decided in 2007 to create a tennis culture for the masses in a former Soviet Republic known for combat sports and weight lifting. Casual tennis fans likely got their first glimpse of perhaps the most surprising rising power player in the sport at Wimbledon in July, when a dark-haired, superfan in a Panama hat and blue blazer embraced Elena Rybakina, the native Russian turned Kazakh who won the women’s singles title.“Unbelievable support,” Rybakina said of the effusiveness of Bulat Utemuratov, the billionaire who invested in her game and changed her life, as she thanked him during the Wimbledon trophy presentation.Utemuratov’s sporting indulgences are back at the center of the sport this week. Because of him, the center of the tennis universe has shifted to a medium-sized city in Kazakhstan, a country that was only nominally on the tennis map a decade ago but now has the wherewithal to lure many of the biggest stars of the game.Novak Djokovic, Carlos Alcaraz, Daniil Medvedev, Stefanos Tsitsipas and a handful of other top players competed this week in Astana, the capital of a vast Central Asian republic, because Utemuratov, a Kazakh diplomat and industrialist decided 15 years ago to use his largess to turn his country into an emerging tennis force.“I liked it from the beginning,” Utemuratov, 64, said of tennis during a recent interview, though that beginning didn’t arrive until he was in his 30s.Rybakina’s run to the Wimbledon championship caused a major dust-up. Players from Russia and Belarus were barred from participating in this year’s tournament because of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Rybakina, 23, was born and raised in Moscow, where her family still lives. She became a citizen of Kazakhstan five years ago in exchange for financial support from Utemuratov and the country’s tennis federation. It was just one part of Utemuratov’s strategy for turning the former Soviet republic into a legitimate tennis nation, as odd as that sounded when he launched it in the ‘aughts.His multipronged approach could serve as a blueprint for other nations that want to get better at tennis, or really any sport, as long as they have one key ingredient — a billionaire willing to spend whatever it takes. The sports world is filled with billionaires who buy teams and use them as fancy toys. Utemuratov chose to essentially buy an entire sport, for now, in his own country, though he is becoming increasingly influential internationally.Utemuratov boxed and played soccer and table tennis in his youth. He did not start playing tennis until Kazakhstan’s post-Soviet business community embraced it in the 1990s. During the Soviet era, tennis was frowned upon as a sport of the elite. There were only a handful of tennis courts in the entire country, and playing on them was extremely expensive.To Utemuratov, tennis was a revelation — a physical version of chess, requiring versatility, intellectual wherewithal, maximum concentration and constant athletic improvement.Utemuratov’s tennis prowess rose with his political and financial prominence. After the collapse of the Soviet Union, he served as both an economic envoy for Kazakhstan to Europe and the United Nations, the leader of one of top financial institutions and a special aide to then-President Nursultan Nazarbayev. Nazarbayev ruled the country essentially as a dictator for three decades as it worked to modernize and take advantage of its vast oil reserves.An aerial view of Nur-Sultan (Astana) where the Astana Open is taking place.Alexander Zemlianichenko/Associated PressIn a country where soccer and combat sports ruled and its most prominent athlete is Gennady Golovkin, the middleweight boxing champion known as Triple G, tennis barely registered. By 2007, the country’s tennis federation was nearly bankrupt. Utemuratov and other business leaders discussed what they could do to save the national federation. Utemuratov, who had become a big fan of Rafael Nadal and Roger Federer, offered his services.It was, he said, a special challenge, “like starting from scratch,” and doing so in a poor, sprawling country, with just 20 million people spread across a territory nearly 2,000 miles wide and 1,000 miles from top to bottom. Kazakhstan stretches from close to Mongolia to within a few hundred miles of Ukraine’s eastern border. It’s brutally cold for much of the year, too, and there were still barely any tennis courts.Using almost entirely Utemuratov’s money, the Kazakhstan Tennis Federation went on a building spree, investing roughly $200 million — nearly a tenth of his estimated fortune — to construct 38 tennis centers in all 17 regions of the country. It trained hundreds of coaches and instructors and imported some from Europe. It subsidized lessons for young children and adolescents who can train six days a week for $40-$120 per month. The best juniors receive as much as $50,000 to pay for training and travel.Utemuratov said making the sport affordable was essential to changing the perception of tennis to a game for all people from one of just the elite. There are now 33,000 registered players at all levels in Kazakhstan. In 2007, there were just 1,800. A staff of 32 at the federation’s headquarters is in constant contact with 70 other coaches and employees at the tennis centers tracking the progress of promising juniors.Dave Miley, an Irishman who led player development at the International Tennis Federation, arrived two years ago to serve as the executive director of the K.T.F. Miley said money alone will not produce high-level players.As interest and participation grew and the quality of play improved, the federation partnered with academies in Spain, Italy, and other established tennis countries to send its best junior players there to train. It held international tournaments from young juniors to the professional ranks.“You only produce players if you have a systematic approach,” he said.That is only partly true.Utemuratov knew that people in his country would truly embrace the sport only if Kazakhstan had top professionals. And he didn’t want to wait a generation to see if the country might produce one organically.So instead of waiting, he adopted a strategy that lots of other countries have used to pursue excellence in other sports — he began to look abroad, specifically to Russia, in search of players who had talent but were not successful enough to garner support from the tennis federation there. His offer was simple: Play for Kazakhstan, which shares a language and a history with Russia, and the country will fund your career.He found early takers in Yuri Schukin and Yaroslava Shvedova. Schukin never cracked the top 100 but Shvedova reached a career-high ranking of No. 25 in 2012. She made the quarterfinals in singles of three Grand Slam tournaments and won doubles titles at Wimbledon and the U.S. Open. Schukin is now one of the country’s leading coaches.More recently, Rybakina and Alexander Bublik another native Russian, signed on to represent Kazakhstan. Russia’s tennis federation had essentially discarded both players, leaving them and their families to find coaching and court access on their own.Bublik said he first met Utemuratov when he was a young teenager playing in Monte Carlo, Monaco. Utemuratov had reserved a court for several hours to play with his daughter. They finished early and Utemuratov told Bublik to use the rest of his court time.Robert Perry/Press Association, via Associated PressBublik, 25, decided to make Kazakhstan his second home in 2016 after he made the quarterfinals of a second-tier tournament, but with little help from Russia’s tennis federation. With Kazakhstan funding his travel and coaching, he cracked the top 100 a little more than a year later.A lot of players receive funding when they are young from an individual sponsor who is only in it to get paid back and take his share of the winnings when a player becomes successful, Bublik said last week from his third home, in Monte Carlo.“For him it’s his passion,” said Bublik, who is now ranked 43rd. “It’s a big love from his side.”Utemuratov, who is now a close friend, confidant and mentor of Bublik’s, speaks with Bublik often, though Bublik said the one topic he rarely follows Utemuratov’s advice on is tennis strategy.Despite Rybakina’s recent success, Utemuratov said Kazakhstan no longer actively looks for Russian prospects.Instead, it is more focused on the development of players like Zangar Nurlanuly, who has held the top ranking in his age group in Europe and this year led his teammates to the semifinals of the I.T.F. under-14 World Junior Tennis Finals, a kind of Davis Cup for small fries. Utemuratov joined the team’s courtside celebration after it got through the preliminary round.Utemuratov’s investment is paying off for him outside Kazakhstan’s tennis circles. He is now a vice president of the I.T.F., the sport’s world governing body.The next big step happens this week, as Kazakhstan hosts a Masters 500 tournament, just below the top-level tour events, for the first time, after years of hosting lower-tier competitions. In another first, Utemuratov said the tennis federation did not have to give away tickets to fill the stands. More

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      As Roger Federer Retires, Two Great Rivalries Come to an End

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      A look at the great matches between Federer and Rafael Nadal as well as Federer and Novak Djokovic.Baseball has the Yankees and Red Sox. Soccer has F.C. Barcelona and Real Madrid. College football has Michigan and Ohio State.Over the past two decades, men’s tennis has had Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal, and also Federer and Novak Djokovic. In team sports, rosters change year by year and the rivalries endure. But when players retire in individual sports like tennis, their rivalries go with them.Such is the case for Federer, the 20-time Grand Slam champion, and his rivalries with Nadal, the 22-time Grand Slam champion, and Djokovic, who has 21 Grand Slam titles.As the eldest of what has become known as the Big Three in men’s tennis, Federer, 41, made his debut on the pro tour earlier than Djokovic and Nadal. Federer turned pro in 1998 and won his first Grand Slam title in 2003 at Wimbledon. Nadal, 36, turned pro in 2001 and won his first Grand Slam title in 2005 at the French Open, and Djokovic, 35, turned pro in 2003 and won his first Grand Slam title in 2008 at the Australian Open.Jon Wertheim, a Tennis Channel commentator and sports journalist, said the younger Nadal and Djokovic had more time to prepare for how to beat Federer.“By virtue of being first, he could not tailor his game for how to beat them,” Wertheim said of Federer. “I don’t think he gets enough credit for raising the bar. He will finish third in majors won, but there’s a huge disadvantage that comes with being first.”In the end, Federer played Nadal 40 times from their first match against each other in the round of 32 at the ATP Masters 1000 tournament in Miami in 2004 (which Nadal won) to their most recent match, a Wimbledon semifinal in 2019 (which Federer won). Federer beat Nadal 16 times; Nadal won 24 times.Federer and Djokovic played in 50 matches against each other. Starting with their first match at the ATP Masters 1000 tournament in Monaco (which Federer won) to their most recent match, a semifinal at the Australian Open in 2020 (which Djokovic won), Djokovic came out slightly ahead, winning 27 matches to Federer’s 23.David Law, a commentator and co-host of “The Tennis Podcast,” said the rivalries made all three players better over time.“One would gain the upper hand, the other was forced to adapt,” Law said. “Federer doesn’t develop the smashed backhand drive down the line if Nadal doesn’t force him into taking it early to avoid the high backhand off the back foot. Djokovic doesn’t develop his serve with the help of Goran Ivanisevic if Federer isn’t all over him trying to half volley the return and charge in.”The rivalries made for some epic matches. Here is a look at some of the best between Federer and Nadal, and Federer and Djokovic:Nadal vs. Federer, 2008 Wimbledon finalFor many fans, the 2008 Wimbledon men’s final will go down as one of the best matches in the history of tennis. Going into the final that year, Federer had won five consecutive Wimbledon singles titles, including two against Nadal, in 2006 and 2007.Played on Centre Court, which did not yet have a roof, the match was delayed twice because of rain, pushing it closer and closer to darkness. The match went to tiebreakers in the third and fourth sets. In the fourth set, Federer saved two match points, and in the fifth set, he was two points away from winning his sixth consecutive Wimbledon final.Roger Federer’s Farewell to Professional TennisThe Swiss tennis player leaves the game with one of the greatest competitive records in history.An Appraisal: “He has, figuratively and literally, re-embodied men’s tennis, and for the first time in years, the game’s future is unpredictable,” the author David Foster Wallace wrote of Roger Federer in 2006.A Poignant Send-Off: Wimbledon may have been more fitting. But the Laver Cup, which Federer helped create, will offer a sensible final act for one of the greatest players of this era.A Billion-Dollar Brand: Some tennis superstars have built sponsorship empires. But none ever wooed the corporate class as brilliantly as Federer did.Tennis After Federer: The Swiss player, along with Rafael Nadal and Novak Djokovic, helped define a remarkably durable period in men’s tennis history. Following behind is a new generation of hungry players, ready to muscle their way into the breach.Finally, at 9:16 p.m. local time, after 4 hours 48 minutes, Federer hit a forehand into the net. Nadal collapsed onto the grass with his first Wimbledon title, 6-4, 6-4, 6-7 (5), 6-7 (8), 9-7.Federer said after the match that it was “probably my hardest loss, by far; I mean it’s not much harder than this right now.”“He played a super match, and I’m sure it was a great match to watch and to play, but it’s all over now,” Federer said. “I need some time.”Nadal vs. Federer, 2009 Australian Open finalFederer and Nadal met again the next year at the Australian Open final in 2009. Again, the two played five sets in a match that lasted more than four hours. In the end, Nadal defeated Federer, 7-5, 3-6, 7-6 (3), 3-6, 6-2, stopping Federer at least temporarily from matching Pete Sampras’s record of 14 Grand Slam singles titles.The intense match is also remembered for its emotional ending. After the match, a devastated Federer struggled to speak during the trophy ceremony.“God, it’s killing me,” he said before breaking into tears.After lifting his trophy, Nadal walked back to Federer and put his arm around him and put his head to Federer’s, appearing to console him. Federer pulled himself together and walked back to the microphone.“I don’t want to have the last word; this guy deserves it,” Federer said. “So, Rafa, congratulations. You played incredible. You deserve it, man.”Djokovic vs. Federer, 2014 Wimbledon finalLaw said that while the 2008 Wimbledon final will be remembered as a standout match, “the best rivalry was the one between Federer and Djokovic.”They met in the Wimbledon final in 2014. By then, Federer had seven Wimbledon titles, and Djokovic had one. The final went to five sets, with tiebreakers in the first and third sets.At 4-5, Federer was serving with the game at 40-15 in Djokovic’s favor. Trying to return one of Djokovic’s forehand shots, Federer’s iconic one-handed backhand failed him, as he hit the ball into the net, losing the match, 6-7 (7), 6-4, 7-6 (4), 5-7, 6-4.“Winning or losing, it’s always something special and something you’ll remember, even more so when the match was as dramatic as it was today,” Federer said after the match. “It’s even more memorable when I see my kids there with my wife and everything. That’s what touched me the most, to be quite honest. The disappointment of the match itself went pretty quickly.”Nadal vs. Federer, 2017 Australian Open finalFederer, then 35, entered the Australian Open in 2017 after some considerable time off in 2016 because of a knee injury. Federer reached the final and defeated Nadal, 6-4, 3-6, 6-1, 3-6, 6-3. The win was Federer’s first major title since Wimbledon in 2012 and the first time he had beaten Nadal in a Grand Slam final since Wimbledon in 2007.Like in the 2008 Wimbledon final, when Nadal and Federer played, Law said that “neither could pick on a specific weakness.”“It became a sharpshooter’s matchup full of shotmaking, attack and counterattack,” Law said.Though it was a meaningful win for Federer, the match ended in a less than ideal manner. Serving while up, 5-3, in the final set, and after a small flurry of line challenges, Federer hit a forehand to Nadal’s right on a championship point. The ball was called in, but Nadal immediately raised a finger and challenged, arguing that the ball was out.The players anxiously waited for the official review of the shot, which confirmed that the ball was in and had hit the line. Federer immediately threw his arms into the air and leaped in celebration.“Of course, it’s slightly awkward to win this way,” Federer said after the match. “Nevertheless, emotions poured out of me. I was incredibly happy.”Djokovic vs. Federer, 2019 Wimbledon finalThe Wimbledon final in 2019 will go down as Federer’s last appearance in a Grand Slam final. To reach it, Federer beat Nadal in four sets in the semifinal. The final turned out to be another marathon, five sets in 4 hours 57 minutes. The final set lasted just over two hours by itself. In the end, Djokovic beat Federer, 7-6 (5), 1-6, 7-6 (4), 4-6, 13-12 (3).Djokovic saved two match points on Federer’s serve, then won in a final-set tiebreaker that was the first of its kind for a Wimbledon final.After the match, Djokovic said he thought Federer had commanded most of the match.“I was defending,” Djokovic said. “He was dictating the play. I just tried to fight and find a way when it mattered the most, which is what happened.”Federer said there were some similarities to the Wimbledon final in 2008 when he lost to Nadal.“I just feel like it’s such an incredible opportunity missed, I can’t believe it,” Federer said. More

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      For Roger Federer, London Is a Sensible End to a Long Career

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      Wimbledon may have been more fitting. But the Laver Cup, which Federer helped create, will surely offer a poignant send-off at O2 Arena for one of the greatest male players of this era.It was in London where Roger Federer became a genuine star: strolling onto Centre Court at Wimbledon in 2001 with a ponytail and nondesigner stubble and then coolly and stylishly ending the long reign of Pete Sampras with a fourth-round upset.So, it seems fitting, or at least symmetrical, that Federer will end his competitive tennis career in London, too, playing one last doubles match in the Laver Cup on Friday night, surely alongside his friendly archrival Rafael Nadal.It of course would have been a fuller circle for Federer’s final act to have come at Wimbledon. But that would have meant playing best-of-five sets on often-slick grass, and though his spirit is still willing, his 41-year-old, postoperative knees are not.Instead, the end will come indoors at O2 Arena in a team event Federer conceived with his agent, Tony Godsick, and launched in better, healthier days in 2017, when he was in the midst of the surprising late-career revival that cemented his place among the exceptional athletes of this age or any other.Though it was far from a sure thing, he endured with excellence: breaking into the top 20 as a teenager and becoming the oldest No. 1 in the history of men’s tennis at age 36 in 2018.On Wednesday at a news conference at the O2 Arena ahead of the Laver Cup, Federer was asked how he hoped people would remember him and what made him proudest about his career.“Longevity” was the answer.“I was famous for being quite erratic at the beginning of my career,” he said. “And then to become one of the most consistent players ever is quite a shock to me, as well.”Federer said he felt back then that he could compete for any title for “15-plus years.”“That has been a privilege,” he said. “I think looking back, that has a special meaning to me because I always looked to the Michael Schumachers, Tiger Woods, all the other guys that stayed for so long at the top that I didn’t understand how they did it. Next thing you know, you’re part of that group, and it’s been a great feeling.”Federer did it with a unique blend of improvisational talent and carefully conceived structure.He had an undeniable gift for the game, including supreme hand-eye coordination and what Marc Rosset, the most successful male Swiss player before Federer, rightly identified as exceptional “processing speed” that allowed Federer more time to create great shots on the fly and then finish them with an extra flourish.But Federer also learned how to manage his time, build an excellent support team and maintain his positive energy. He scheduled judiciously and took genuine breaks from the grind of the tour while also relaxing while playing on the tour. Many an opponent can recall a pleasant chat with Federer in the locker room shortly before a match, and that he could then don his game face in an unsettling hurry.Roger Federer’s Farewell to Professional TennisThe Swiss tennis player leaves the game with one of the greatest competitive records in history.An Appraisal: “He has, figuratively and literally, re-embodied men’s tennis, and for the first time in years, the game’s future is unpredictable,” the author David Foster Wallace wrote of Roger Federer in 2006.How He Upgraded His Game: In 2017, at age 36, Federer found himself in the midst of a late-career resurgence that was rare for any sport. Here is how he achieved it.A Billion-Dollar Brand: Some tennis superstars have built sponsorship empires. But none ever wooed the corporate class as brilliantly as Federer did.Tennis After Federer: The Swiss player, along with Rafael Nadal and Novak Djokovic, helped define a remarkably durable period in men’s tennis history. Following behind is a new generation of hungry players, ready to muscle their way into the breach.In an interview in 2019, he explained his recipe for success.“As much as I take things very serious, I am very laid back, so I can really let go very quickly. I truly believe this is a secret for a lot of the players and for the young guys is to be able, when you leave the site, to say: ‘OK, I’m going to leave it behind,’” he said. “‘I still know I’m a professional tennis player, but I’m relaxing. I’m doing it my way, whatever helps me decompress.’”Federer punctuated this by clenching his left fist.“Because if you are constantly like this, that’s when you burn out,” he said, looking at his fist.Federer, by design and by embracing the process, never did burn out. Instead, his body gave out after multiple knee surgeries and long cycles of rehabilitation. He said he still had hope at Wimbledon this year, when he made a surprise appearance for a ceremony honoring the 100th anniversary of Centre Court, that he could return to play there at least “one more time.”But shortly after that emotional visit, he said he received the results of a magnetic resonance imaging scan on his right knee that made the reality clear.“I was already walking on thin ice for a long time,” he told the Swiss press this week.He called the decision “bittersweet” when he announced it last week, and then broke down the bitter and the sweet on Wednesday.“The bitterness is you always want to play forever,” he said. “I love being out on court. I love playing against the guys. I love traveling. I never really felt like it was that hard for me to do.”He said he enjoyed the winning and learned from losing.“It was all perfect,” he said. “I love my career from every angle. That’s the bitter part. The sweet part was that I know everybody has to do it at one point. Everybody has to leave the game. It’s been a great, great journey. For that, I’m really grateful.”Asked for the highlights, Federer pointed to the upset of Sampras in 2001, his first major title at Wimbledon in 2003, his first and only French Open title in 2009 and the Australian Open victory in 2017 that launched his comeback.But he knows the lowlights are intrinsically part of the story, too: defeats like the 2008 Wimbledon final against Nadal and the 2019 Wimbledon final against Novak Djokovic, which as it turned out, was Federer’s last chance to win a 21st major singles title.“I’m probably famous for having some tougher losses, as well,” he said. “But then also dealing with them and seeing it as an opportunity to get better, to grow from it. I’m happy I don’t have flashbacks to tough moments in my career.” He added: “I’m happy that my brain allows me to think this way, because I know it’s not easy to push sometimes defeats and those things away.”Passed in the Grand Slam singles title count by Nadal and Djokovic, who both hold a head-to-head-edge over him, Federer is no longer an obvious pick as the greatest player of this golden era. But he was clearly that player at one stage: in 2009 when he broke Sampras’s then-existing record by winning his 15th major at Wimbledon.“Anything after that was a bonus,” he said. “Obviously the last few years have been what they have been, but I’m very happy that I was able to win another five slams from 15 on. For me it was incredible. Then I made it to over 100 titles, and all that stuff has been fantastic. Then just my longevity is something I’m very proud of. Don’t need all the records to be happy; I tell you that.”Federer addressed many topics on Wednesday in his familiar rambling English and later in French and his native Swiss-German.That polyglot performance also seemed fitting, considering that Federer has been an accessible champion, answering and generally respecting each question over the many years. He also has a fiercely private side, which helps explain how he was able to keep his retirement decision from going public for nearly two months.He could have signed off on Instagram, which did not exist when he started his career. Instead, he will play one last match in London, which certainly won’t hurt the profile of his brainchild, the Laver Cup, but also seems a reasonable way to call it a day.The O2 is sold out for all five sessions (no surprise despite the high price of entry), but opening night on Friday seems to be the must-have ticket. Win or lose — and who really cares at this stage? — there will be roars, and there will be goose bumps. And though there were surprisingly no tears from Federer on Wednesday, there should be a few of those, too. More

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      The Reliable, Graceful and Fallible Roger Federer

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      Federer’s moves made even blowout matches worthy of watching. And the moments in which he fell short made his legacy even more intriguing.Roger Federer is the most famous living citizen of Switzerland.“It’s not even close,” Nicolas Bideau, a Swiss official in charge of promoting the country’s image abroad, once told me.But though the Swiss have long adopted neutrality, Federer has played at home just about all over the world.Pity the Frenchman who faced Federer at Roland Garros, where his command of French and forehand made him a perennial crowd favorite.Pity Juan Martín del Potro, a tower of power from Argentina, who faced Federer in a 2012 exhibition in the suburbs of Buenos Aires and unexpectedly felt like the road team.Pity Novak Djokovic, the Serbian megastar, who faced Federer in the 2015 U.S. Open final and had to deal with roars of approval for his double faults by forcing himself to imagine that the crowd was chanting his name instead of Federer’s.So it went so often during Federer’s long run near the top of his game, and when I researched and wrote a biography of Federer after 20 years of covering him for The New York Times, one of my objectives was to fully comprehend what lay behind that deep connection with so many different cultures.I finished with four big reasons:First and most evidently, there was the beauty of his game, something closer to dance than tennis with his feathery footwork, flowing stroke production and something even closer to improvisational dance in that Federer, happily for nearly all involved, often strayed from the choreography: leaping or lunging to intercept a ball and create some fresh move with a flick of the wrist and barely a sound.His sleight of right hand sometimes left opponents dumbfounded: see Andy Roddick’s expression in 2002 after being Federered in Federer’s real home city of Basel. Above all, Federer’s game was an immersive viewing experience, one that could transform even a rout into a happening because of the aesthetic quality of the drubbing. The score sometimes seemed beside the point. You did not need to be a tennis fan to appreciate Federer’s art, but his art could certainly make you a tennis fan, which is part of his legacy as he retires next week from competitive tennis.Second, Federer endured while excelling, remaining highly visible and relevant without any dramatic dip in results or appeal. For 20 years, he was a reliable on-screen presence: on television when he first emerged in the late 1990s and on all manner of devices by the time he played his last major tournament at Wimbledon in 2021. His record of 20 Grand Slam singles titles has been passed by Rafael Nadal and Djokovic, but his record of 23 consecutive Grand Slam singles semifinals may never be beaten. And then there is the pièce de résistance of his statistics: Federer never called a halt to any of his 1,526 career singles matches or 223 doubles matches because of injury or illness. Jimmy Connors, the only man to have played more tour-level matches than Federer, retired from 14 tour-level singles matches. Djokovic has retired from 13; Nadal from nine. Federer’s tennis was not just pretty. It was gritty.Third, he conducted himself, on and off the court, with class. After a shaky start, full of tossed rackets and shrieks of frustration, Federer became something much closer to a Zen master by the early 2000s. That was in part because he realized, as he rose in prominence, that he did not want to project a temperamental image to his public but also because he realized he played better under tight control. That the release provided by bemoaning the injustice of it all was seriously outweighed by the precision and focus acquired by mastering his emotions even if that old fire, as he once told me, still burned intensely behind the modern facade.Off the court — with the sponsors, the news media, the public and his family of six — he put the emphasis on being in the moment and present (and that does not refer to social media presence). He arrived on Instagram and Twitter relatively late in the game and posted cleverly if infrequently. He always seemed to prefer the face-to-face, undistracted approach, which made him old-school at one stage and then surely ahead of the curve. An interview with Federer, be it over a meal or in the back seat of a courtesy car, was usually closer to a conversation. “The reason Roger is so interesting is because he’s so interested,” his former coach Paul Annacone once told me.That rings true. A people person, he was, unlike some of his predecessors such as Stefan Edberg and Pete Sampras, an extrovert who gathered energy from interaction. But Federer also knew his limits: sensing when he was close to saturation and taking a well-timed, usually private break.Federer won the 2017 Australian Open over Nadal to begin his surprising late-career renaissance.Clive Brunskill/Getty ImagesThe principle, and this is something that people without extraterrestrial tennis skills can learn from, was to find pleasure or at least minimal displeasure in the obligations that went with his job and status: be they post-match interviews in three languages or meet-and-greet events for his myriad sponsors. His world, as Roddick aptly observed, has long appeared to be low-friction, but that is not simply because he can fly private and stay in the most luxurious of resorts and abodes. It is because of attitude and a genuine love of discovery and the road, just as long as he can return to low-friction Switzerland on occasion to regroup.Finally, and this is perhaps the most intriguing element of the popularity equation, Federer was a serial champion, one of the most prolific in the game’s long history, but he was also a big loser.You can argue quite convincingly that Federer failed to seal the deal in two of his three greatest matches: losing the 2008 Wimbledon final in the gloaming to Nadal; winning the 2017 Australian Open over Nadal to begin Federer’s surprising late-career renaissance and then, most poignantly to those who call Federer home, losing to Djokovic in the 2019 Wimbledon final after holding two match points on his own serve at age 37.True Federer fans (and Djokovic fans) can replay those two missed opportunities in their heads: the slightly off-balance forehand error off a deep return followed by the crosscourt forehand passing shot winner from Djokovic off an unconvincing approach shot. In about a minute, what would have been the most remarkable triumph of his career had slipped away on his favorite patch of grass, the theater which suited his balletic game best and where he had won a men’s record eight Wimbledon singles titles.For all his talent, sagacious planning and love of the game, he still faltered when it mattered: not often over 20-plus years but certainly enough to humanize him.Then there were the tears, which came in victory and defeat and came, it seemed, more often early in his career than late. Such public sensitivity from a superstar male athlete once would have been derided as soft, but Federer’s timing was right, just as it was right so often on his rhythmic serve and full-cut groundstrokes tight to the baseline and straight off the bounce.His game was a visual feast, suitable for framing, but the player was flesh-and-blood vulnerable and all the more relatable for it despite all the millions in the Swiss bank. More

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      Kader Nouni: The Umpire Known as the ‘Barry White of Tennis’

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      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

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      Rafael Nadal Defeated at U.S. Open by an American, Frances Tiafoe

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      The next generation of top American players has struggled heavily against Nadal, Novak Djokovic and Roger Federer in Grand Slams. Tiafoe broke through by winning, 6-4, 4-6, 6-4, 6-3.It happens at just about every Grand Slam. One of the American men of the so-called next generation begins to look dangerous, raising hopes for a breakthrough.Then one of those familiar foes who have hogged the biggest trophies in the sport dashes the dream.Lately the Americans have been getting closer, which has made the failures more difficult to swallow. Taylor Fritz said he wanted to cry on his chair beside the court when he lost to Rafael Nadal in a fifth-set tiebreaker in the Wimbledon quarterfinals this summer.No one has to dream anymore.Frances Tiafoe emerged on Monday at the U.S. Open in a way that went beyond the other top Americans of his generation, beating Nadal in four sets to knock one of the sport’s so-called Big Three — who also include Novak Djokovic and Roger Federer — out of a Grand Slam tournament.Tiafoe beat Nadal, 6-4, 4-6, 6-4, 6-3, with an intense, joyous effort on an electric afternoon at the Billie Jean King National Tennis Center. He grabbed his head and crouched to his knees when Nadal hit the final backhand into the net.“I don’t even know what happened,” Tiafoe said, moments later. “Unbelievable day.”

      Men’s Singles Fourth RoundFinal22 Frances Tiafoe64662 Rafael Nadal4643 .spt-live-blog-width { max-width: 600px; margin: auto; } .spt-grid-item { font-family: nyt-franklin,arial,helvetica,sans-serif; padding: 5px 0; width: 100%; border: none; } table.spt-scoreboard { font-family: nyt-franklin,arial,helvetica,sans-serif; font-weight: 300; font-size: 15px; border-collapse: collapse; width: 100%; } tr.spt-scoreboard { border-top: 1px solid #ddd; } tr.spt-scoreboard:last-of-type { border-bottom: 1px solid #ddd; } td.spt-scoreboard { padding: 13px 0 12px; text-align: left; /* vertical-align: top; */ } .spt-black { color: #121212; } .spt-athleteName { word-wrap: break-word; word-break: break-word; hyphens: auto; margin: 0 !important; } .spt-score { padding: 13px 0 12px; position: relative; vertical-align: middle; text-align: center; width: 30px; } .win { font-weight: 700; } .spt-score sup { position: absolute; top: 7px; text-indent: 2px; font-size: 12.5px; } .spt-winner-mark { width: 1em; margin-left: 5px; height: 1em; display: none; } .spt-winner-mark.win { display: block; } .spt-container { display: flex; align-items: center; } .spt-medal-wrapper { display: flex; align-items: center; justify-content: center; } .serve { display: inline-block; border-radius: 10px; width: 10px; height: 10px; background-color: #ffe532; margin-left: 5px; } .spt-seed { font-size: 12.5px; color: #666; font-weight: 300; width: 21px; text-align: right; display: inline-block; } .spt-flag { transform: scale(.9); margin-top: 1px; margin-bottom: -1px; } .spt-meta { margin-bottom: 5px; } div.spt-title { padding-bottom: 5px; font-weight: 700; } div.spt-status { font-weight: 400; } @media (min-width: 600px) { .spt-grid-item { /*text-align: center;*/ } .spt-score { width: 50px; } .spt-meta { text-align: center; margin-bottom: 10px; } } The victory represented the next step for the American men, who have not won a Grand Slam singles title in 19 years. Tiafoe and his fellow 20-somethings have become solid members of the top 30 this year, but have yet to crack the next level.For Tiafoe, a strong and talented 24-year-old from Hyattsville, Md., who is one of the fastest players in the game and built like an N.F.L. defensive back, the win was the biggest of his career. It came in his home-country slam in a stadium packed to the rafters with the sound bellowing off the roof after nearly every point, with raucous cheers for both an American underdog and a beloved champion.Tennis for Tiafoe, who is the child of immigrants from Sierra Leone, was simply a means to gain a scholarship to college. Then it became far more that.Tiafoe rode the crowd for all it was worth, pumping his fists and asking for more noise on his best shots. After a key winner gave him a decisive break of Nadal’s serve in the third set, he sprinted to his chair, revving up the crowd even more and letting the roars fall over him.Serena Williams at the U.S. OpenThe U.S. Open was very likely the tennis star’s last professional tournament after a long career of breaking boundaries and obliterating expectations.Glorious Goodbye: Even as Serena Williams faced career point, she put on a gutsy display of the power and resilience that have kept fans cheering for nearly 30 years.The Magic Ends: Zoom into this composite photo to see details of Williams’s final moment on Ashe Stadium at this U.S. Open.Tennis After Serena: Tennis has long thrived on singular stars, no one bigger than Williams. But perhaps women’s tennis doesn’t need one big name to be interesting.Sisterhood on the Court: Since Williams and her sister Venus burst onto the tennis scene in the 1990s, their legacies have been tied to each other’s.The loss for Nadal, who was seeded second, came less than 24 hours after Daniil Medvedev, the top seed and defending champion, lost to Nick Kyrgios. It blew the men’s tournament wide open and nearly guaranteed that there will be a first-time Grand Slam champion for the third consecutive year.Tiafoe said ahead of the match that he needed to somehow equal Nadal’s intensity from the first point to the last, and that is exactly what he did. He stumbled briefly in the fourth set, when he was forced to serve as the roof was closing because of a rainy forecast. Noticeably shaken, he complained to the chair umpire, missed an easy volley and got sloppy with his groundstrokes, letting Nadal break him.But he quickly came back to break Nadal’s serve in the next game, and then began hammering away and scampering across the court to chase down every ball he could reach and many he couldn’t. A serve that regularly hits 130 miles per hour on the radar gun was plenty helpful, too. A 134-m.p.h. rocket brought him to within one game of the finish line.Nadal will not get a chance at a 23rd Grand Slam title in New York.Gabriela Bhaskar for The New York TimesHe also took advantage of the fact that Nadal, a 22-time Grand Slam champion, was not playing at his best.Nadal is still finding his form at the end of a strange, injury-plagued year that somehow could still end up being one of his best.He could barely walk on his chronically injured left foot six weeks before the Australian Open and thought he might have to retire. Then he started to feel better, played one tournament before the year’s first Grand Slam, and then won it, coming back from two sets down in the final against Medvedev, the world No. 1.He cracked a rib ahead of the final of the BNP Paribas Open in Indian Wells, Calif., and then the pain in his foot returned just a few weeks before the French Open. He received injections to numb his foot before each match and still won his 14th French Open title. He also left Paris on crutches.Playing on the Wimbledon grass for the first time in three years, he got better with each match and appeared destined for a showdown in the finals against Djokovic. But he tore an abdominal muscle during his match against Fritz. He withdrew from the tournament the next day.Rehabilitation from that injury took longer than expected. Nadal arrived in New York having played just one hardcourt match, which he lost to Borna Coric of Croatia in Ohio. In Queens, Rinky Hijikata, a wild-card entrant from Australia ranked 198th in the world, took the first set off him in the first round. Nadal struggled to find the court for much of the first two sets of his second-round match against Fabio Fognini of Italy.On Monday against Tiafoe, Nadal had to consult with a physiotherapist after the first set. He double-faulted at key moments and could not produce the torque that has always been so essential for his power but also makes him prone to injuries.“I don’t even know what happened,” Tiafoe said. “Unbelievable day.”Gabriela Bhaskar for The New York TimesAfter the match, Nadal was philosophical as always, saying that complaining about his spate of injuries or wondering what might have been had he not gotten hurt, or if possible distractions had not developed — his wife, who is pregnant, was hospitalized while he was in New York — would not change the outcome. After all, sometimes he has been terribly hurt and somehow managed to come out on top — just not this time.“We can’t find excuses,” he said. He continued: “I have been practicing well the week before, honestly. But then when the competition started, my level went down. That’s the truth. For some reason, I don’t know, mental issues in terms of a lot of things happened the last couple of months. Doesn’t matter. At the end the only thing that happened is we went to the fourth round of the U.S. Open and I faced a player that was better than me. And that’s why I am having a plane back home.”Tiafoe is headed back to a Grand Slam quarterfinal for the first time since the Australian Open in 2019, the last time he played Nadal — and lost — in a Grand Slam.That performance, when he was 21, announced him as a potential force. Suddenly people in the game started looking to him as a savior for American men’s tennis, which has struggled for several years to find its next big star.Tiafoe has said it was all a bit too much too soon, and it happened before he really understood the dedication and commitment required to climb to the highest echelon of the sport.After shooting into the top 30 he slumped. He has steadily climbed the world rankings since the middle of last year. He also made the final 16 at the U.S. Open in 2020 and 2021, and did so at Wimbledon this year. Coming into Monday’s match, he had won all nine sets in New York this year, and had been especially tough in the crucial moments, winning four tiebreakers. But he was battling Nadal and history at the same time.Tiafoe had been winless in six tries against Federer, Djokovic and Nadal, though he had given Djokovic all he could handle in four tight, physical sets at the Australian Open last year.He spoke of being more mentally prepared to take on Nadal than he had been three years ago.“I’m not going to have that ‘first time playing him, excited to play,’” he said of Nadal after his third-round win against Diego Schwartzman, the 14th seed, eight spots higher than him. “Now I believe I can beat him.”Tiafoe is part of a promising and talented group of American players that also includes Fritz, Tommy Paul and Reilly Opelka. They essentially grew up together at junior tournaments and training at the United States Tennis Association centers in Florida.They were born within 12 months of each other in 1997 and 1998 and have been jockeying with and supporting one another since they were 14 years old. Tiafoe has always been the alpha of the group, always looking to rib his mates, especially Fritz.Fritz was once the worst of the foursome but he has had the most success and is the highest ranked. He got the groups’s first win against the Big Three earlier this year, when he overcame an ankle injury during his warm-up and beat Nadal in the final in Indian Wells.Martin Blackman, who as director of player development for the U.S.T.A. has watched Tiafoe and the others in his age group and played a role in the federation’s investment in them, said on Sunday he was confident Tiafoe could break through that Grand Slam barrier against Nadal.“It takes 100 percent focus and intensity from start to finish,” Blackman said.That is exactly what Tiafoe delivered. More