NEW YORK — A point away from losing the second set with his opponent serving, Frances Tiafoe looked at a positive.
At least, he figured, he would be able to change out of his sweaty shirt and sneakers.
A couple of minutes later, he hadn’t changed his clothes. He had changed around the match.
Tiafoe rallied to steal the second set and went on to earn his way back to the US Open quarterfinals for the third straight year, beating Alexei Popyrin 6-4, 7-6 (3), 2-6, 6-3 on Sunday night.
“The second set was a huge, huge win for me,” Tiafoe said. “You know, 5-3, 40-love, him serving, how good he serves, that was really, really big. To break there and then to win that set was huge.”
The No. 20 seed will attempt to match the best Grand Slam result of his career when he faces No. 9 seed Grigor Dimitrov on Tuesday for a berth in the semifinals.
Tiafoe lost to eventual champion Carlos Alcaraz in that round in 2022 and was eliminated last year in the quarterfinals by Ben Shelton.
Tiafoe is the first American man to reach three consecutive US Open quarterfinals since Andy Roddick from 2006 to 2008. Pete Sampras and Andre Agassi are the only other American men since 2000 to reach the final eight in New York three straight times.
All that after what had been a poor first half of the season before Tiafoe heated up on the hard-court swing leading into the US Open.
“Everything is happening when it’s meant to happen,” Tiafoe said. “I’m glad it’s happening now because this is the most important time for me.”
Tiafoe needed no extra motivation before Sunday’s match but said a surprise visit and an unexpected pep talk from 23-time major winner Serena Williams inspired him like never before.
“Telling me she’s always following no matter what, telling me it’s so good to see now that I’m done, you’re the guy of color playing and doing well,” he said.
“I’m, like, damn. That’s really, really cool that she sees me as that.”
Williams returned to the tournament Saturday for the first time since playing her final match at Arthur Ashe two years ago and was spotted again Sunday, taking in the action.
“It was really cool to have her want to talk to me before a match and really say she wants me to do this thing and that I’m capable of doing it,” Tiafoe said. “I don’t think it will hit me like that if anybody else said it to me.”
Williams, however, might be torn on who to cheer for when Tiafoe and Dimitrov meet in the next round, as she counts the Bulgarian as a long-time friend. He…
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