Frances Tiafoe is getting the rematch he wants, a second shot at Ben Shelton at the US Open.
Tiafoe had short work on the steamiest day of the tournament, advancing to the third round when his opponent, Alexander Shevchenko, retired after the first game of the third set, one of two men’s matches in which a player stopped Wednesday in New York.
Tiafoe, who reached the US Open semifinals in 2022, was in complete control when Shevchenko, who had the trainer out after the second set, suddenly called it a day with Tiafoe leading 6-4, 6-1, 1-0.
“Happy to get it done. Hate to win it that way, but overall, I thought I actually played pretty well today,” the 20th-seeded Tiafoe said after a stress-free victory during which he changed shirts five times.
Tiafoe has now won 11 of his past 15 matches since bringing on David Witt as his coach in Atlanta, highlighted by a run to his first Masters 1000 final in Cincinnati. Before that, Tiafoe had a 15-15 record at the tour level this season through Wimbledon.
Up next for Tiafoe is a rematch of last year’s quarterfinal with Shelton, the No. 13 seed who closed out the day session on the Grandstand court with a 6-3, 6-4, 6-4 win over Roberto Bautista Agut.
Shelton eliminated Tiafoe in straight sets a year ago and promised a “popcorn-type match” when the two meet again.
“Obviously, he’s very much like me in how excited and energetic he is on the court,” the 26-year-old Tiafoe said of Shelton, “and has such a big game and big shots and serves big and gets the crowd going.”
Well, maybe not quite as well as Tiafoe does.
“I know that the people love him here. Probably more than me. He’s electric here, and his crowds are electric here,” the 21-year-old Shelton said of Tiafoe.
“It will be a battle. It will be a war just like the last two times we’ve played. Yeah, I’m more than excited to be out there with him again.”
They were two of the four American men to reach the third round in the bottom half of the draw. No. 12 Taylor Fritz got there by beating Matteo Berrettini 6-3, 7-6 (1), 6-1, while Brandon Nakashima beat Arthur Cazaux and will next play No. 18 Lorenzo Musetti, the bronze medalist at the Olympics.
In other men’s singles results from Wednesday, Alexander Zverev dispatched Alexandre Muller 6-4, 7-6 (5), 6-1 on a sweltering Louis Armstrong Stadium court.
Zverev is now one win shy of 100 career major match wins and is inching closer toward joining Boris Becker (163) and Tommy Haas (105)…
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