Tiafoe buried his head in his hands and cried on the court after he shook hands with Nadal.
Frances Tiafoe pulled off the biggest win of his career when the 22nd-ranked American beat second-seeded Rafael Nadal 6-4, 4-6, 6-4, 6-3 to reach the U.S. Open quarterfinals.
Tiafoe buried his head in his hands and cried on the court after he shook hands with Nadal. He sat on the bench and buried his head in a towel as Nadal walked off and waved to the crowd.
The 24-year-old Tiafoe is the youngest American to reach the quarterfinals since Andy Roddick did so at 24 in 2006. Nadal, a four-time U.S. Open champion, was the highest-seeded player left after No. 1 Daniil Medvedev lost Sunday.
Tiafoe already was the first American man to reach the fourth round in three straight years since Mardy Fish in 2010-12.
Nadal entered 22-0 at Grand Slam events in 2022. He was 21-1 against Americans since October 2017, which included straight-set wins over Tiafoe in the 2019 Australian Open quarterfinals and 2019 Madrid third round.
The early edge was a boon for Tiafoe. Nadal has never come back from down 2-1 at the U.S. Open and fell to 0-7 overall at Flushing Meadows with that deficit.
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