American Frances Tiafoe upsets Rafael Nadal in 4th round of US Open
Published on 11/19/2017
The top-seeded American advanced to the fourth round but his hopes of going to the semifinals were ended by a more solid Russian in an easy first-round win.
The 16th seeded player, who has been winning his matches at a rapid pace all year, didn’t face a serious challenge all tournament and ended up winning in four.
Nadal, who’s been the best player so far in the tournament, will play the veteran Juan Martin del Potro of Argentina in the quarterfinals while the top-seeded American hopes to advance to his second Fed Cup final.
After dominating his second service game to take the lead in the second set, American’s first-serve game went for 7-5 giving him a 4-0 lead and he led 3-0 in the third before he ran into some problems.
In the fourth set, Del Potro quickly closed out the first game, but American was able to return fire with an ace to go back up 5-2. However, he couldn’t take the final set and lost 6-4.
“I don’t think I played well,” Del Potro said. “I was a little bit better. I was in love with the ball and I was very aggressive. And I’ve been playing so well this whole tournament.”
The 29th-ranked Nadal made the most of his opportunities. The world number six was at his game and never really looked back.
“I missed a lot of chances to the forehand. I was hitting the ball a lot in the air,” Nadal said. “But it’s something I needed to do that. I was getting up 2-0. Then I missed a couple of chances but I was really confident and I was really close to making the four of six. But for me, it wasn’t the difference. I think it was the result.”
Del Potro, the second seed, played some solid tennis and was able to win both his service games to advance to the fourth round.
“I had to adapt to his game and he really adapted to mine,” Del Potro said. “The game of his is very aggressive