NEW YORK — Taylor Fritz, the late blooming son of an American tennis star of the 1970s, is headed to the US Open final to face Jannik Sinner.
Relying on the big serve, expanding toolbox and thickening spine that have allowed him to compete with the best players in the world in recent years, Fritz twice fought back against Frances Tiafoe, his close friend and training partner from his teenage years. .
“He overwhelmed me from the baseline,” Fritz said on the court. “I just told myself to stay and fight.”
And he listened.
In the first US Open semifinal between two American men in 19 years, Fritz triumphed 4-6, 7-5, 4-6, 6-4, 6-1. He is the first American man to reach the US Open final since 2006, when Andy Roddick lost to Roger Federer.
Fritz will be a heavy underdog on Sunday against Sinner, the Italian world No. 1, who has mostly dug through his opponents the past two weeks, despite the occasional wobble. But Fritz envisioned himself holding the US Open trophy for years, even when that idea seemed absurd to most.
He couldn’t care less about the other side of the net. He would play Sinner, Carlos Alcaraz and Novak Djokovic at the same time for such an opportunity.
“It’s the reason why I do what I do, the reason why I work so hard,” Fritz said through tears on the court when it ended.
Taylor Fritz blew Frances Tiafoe away in the final set. (Kirsty Wigglesworth/Associated Press)
On this court, in this stadium, in front of this crowd of nearly 24,000, with his home Grand Slam on the line and the chance to break the 21-year major drought for American men, don’t think he doesn’t fancy his chances.
Quietly, humbly, he’s so confident these days, and he’s played like that the past 12 of them. He took out Alexander Zverev and Casper Ruud, both Grand Slam finalists ahead of him, en route to the semi-finals against Tiafoe – an overwhelming crowd favorite who thrives on the vibrations of Arthur Ashe Stadium, especially at night.
Two years after he upset Rafael Nadal en route to lighting up New York with a scintillating five-set battle against Alcaraz, Tiafoe on Ashe at the US Open under the lights has become a thing – for him and for everyone who shows up.
Frances Tiafoe wowed the crowd on Arthur Ashe – for most of the match. (Associated Press)
No matter how big a slump Tiafoe has endured the past few months, or how dismal his play has been for a year, he sees the bright lights of the city and the big stadiums, hears the noise, and watches the big screens to see which ones. his famous idols who have become friends are there with him.
He revives, because “it’s different with Ashe.”
Not against Fritz.
Those were Tiafoe’s words earlier this week after he booked his place in the semi-finals against the 26-year-old from southern California, who had dominated their matchup for eight years. Fritz has beaten Tiafoe six out of seven times, and now it’s seven out of eight.
For most of Friday night, it wasn’t clear why. Fritz had the bigger serve, but Tiafoe almost matched it and seemed to have just a few more shots in his racket. That’s what the match came down to — a few points in each set. At first, Fritz played the laziest in the worst of times.
And then late in the fourth set, with Tiafoe serving to pull even at 5-5 and an inch closer to the finish, he had one of those breaks that has plagued him throughout his career, on the biggest stage at the worst possible time. . Double mistakes, mistakes, bad decisions. If there was a mistake to be made Tiafoe made it, and Fritz jumped at the moment, finishing Tiafoe with the ace that put him one step away from the place he always wanted to go.
A handful of points can make or break a player’s career. For opposing reasons, Tiafoe and Fritz will not soon forget the final five points of the fourth set.
“It’s hard to swallow, Tiafoe said. “This one is going to hurt really, really bad.”
Point of knotting the set and raising the pressure on Fritz a few clicks higher, Tiafoe double-faulted twice, to let Fritz back into the game at 40-40.
Then he waved a forearm away from the yard. Suddenly set a point down, Tiafoe then did what players always do when they suddenly lack the desire or confidence to fight through a point. He tried to escape from it early.
The drop shot was doomed as soon as it left his ropes. It gently settled into the bottom of the net.
At the moment, Tiafoe’s body was cramping and he didn’t know why. “Shut me up,” he said.
“Probably had a lot to do with nerves. I really couldn’t move.”
And so after two hours and 51 minutes, Fritz and Tiafoe, companions at national camps for junior players when they were young teenagers, had a shootout for a place in the final of their home Slam.
The fifth set promised to be a showdown. There was a procession. (Julia Nikhinson/Associated Press)
Fritz clenched his fist and sat back in his chair, organizing himself like an executive preparing for a big meeting.
Tiafoe took off his shirt, leaned back and looked at the sky, unable to understand how he let this one slip away. He gargled pickle juice. He took on food. He drank. Anything to keep the cramps at bay.
Fritz then put his foot on his old friend’s neck, although he hardly had to apply any pressure. He scored the next seven points, and the next four games. Tiafoe never held his serve again.
For the better part of two sets and 90 minutes, Fritz could do little more than hang in there and hope that Tiafoe’s level might drop, as it almost always does during a five-set match.
Fritz said he realized early on that Tiafoe was deadly serious about his business. He hit, for him, a killer volley near the start of the match, the kind of shot Tiafoe usually smiles at because it’s kind of lucky. Fritz tried to catch his eye. He didn’t smile. His level was as high as it had been for two weeks in which it had been quite high the entire time. Maybe higher.
Now it was falling, even as the crowd tried to catch him on the way down.
It was hopeless. Fritz won 25 of the 34 points in the final set. Tiafoe won only four points on his serve, and none of the nine that started on his second serve.
When Fritz doubled to return a break of service in the fifth game, he looked at his box, spreading his hands, palms down to the ground, raising and lowering them like lungs. Tranquility Tranquility He then laughed, and returned to the matter of making the final.
Taylor Fritz held her nerve long enough for Frances Tiafoe’s incredible tennis to drop a level. (Kena Betancur/AFP via Getty Images)
It’s not where anyone thought he’d ever be a decade ago, when he wasn’t even good enough to train on the first courts with the best players at the USTA training camps in Florida. Tiafoe, and Tommy Paul and Reilly Opelka were on those courts. Fritz was removed somewhere else.
When he returned home to California, he told his mother, Kathy May, a two-time US Open quarterfinalist, how embarrassed he was. The other boys were much better.
He used it as motivation then, and he’s been playing to prove something ever since. He will get his biggest chance on Sunday, when few will give him much of a shot against Sinner at the end of one of the biggest weekends in American tennis in decades.
On Saturday Jessica Pegula, daughter of Kim and Terry, the co-owners of the Buffalo Bills (and Terry, the owner of the Buffalo Sabers) will face Aryna Sabalenka in the women’s final. Like Fritz, whose mother is heir to the Macy’s retail fortune, Pegula comes from one of the country’s wealthiest families. They had many advantages growing up, but also many doubters. They could listen. They might decide there are easier ways to spend their time. They could have led a life of leisure.
They didn’t. They chose to compete in the unencumbered world of professional tennis. Win or lose this weekend in their home Grand Slam, they will get at least part of the reward they have been looking for for a long time.
(Top photo: Jamie Squire/Getty Images)
