John Riordan: Tiafoe is the champion tennis and America need
AMERICAN DREAM: Frances Tiafoe reacts after defeating Andrey Rublev, of Russia, during the quarterfinals of the US Open.
Picture: AP Photo/Mary Altaffer
What a week for eras ending...
Did the last vestiges of the great tennis empires of this century finally crumble away on Monday afternoon in New York?
If so, it felt mightily appropriate that Frances Tiafoe had a major hand in changing the guard over to his own generation of players.
When he knocked Rafael Nadal out of the US Open at the start of week two, it meant that it was the first time in 20 years that the quarter-finals of a Grand Slam would not contain a star named Serena, Roger, Novak or Rafa.
"It was never supposed to be like this," the 24-year-old Marylander son of Sierra Leone immigrants said of his pro tennis career not long after he dispensed with the Spaniard.
Nadal showed his age and Tiafoe showed his youthful hunger, much of it shaped by growing up just outside Washington, D.C. where some refuge was provided by a facility called the Junior Tennis Champions Center, an employer of their father and a nonprofit partly aimed at supporting young people like him.
Tennis was an escape for Tiafoe and his twin brother and there wasn't a grand plan for a Grand Slam or anything like it. After satisfying the need for free daycare and a healthy distraction from the day-to-day reality of their neighbourhood, a college scholarship was the next frontier of their father's dream for his sons. But Tiafoe turned it up a notch and turned professional at the age of 16.
Much of the reaction this week from the elders of the game has been: "about time, we've been waiting for this to finally click".
I was lucky enough to be at Arthur Ashe Stadium on Wednesday afternoon when an almost full house - and a highly partisan one at that - delighted in Tiafoe's relatively straightforward dismantling of his Russian opponent, Andrey Rublev.
It was straight sets but it was pretty electric. I was also very lucky to be able to bring along my visiting parents thanks to my good friend and soccer team mate Kerry Scalora who hooked us up with really good seats.
My mother Irene is an avid tennis player - still, she weekly boasts - but the thought of ever attending a Grand Slam was absolutely alien to her. The tickets suddenly dropped in on Wednesday morning and we had to act quickly to get ourselves out to Flushing Meadows, taking our seats in time to watch Aryna Sabalenka ease past KarolĂna PlĂšková and on into the women's semi-finals.
Very Irish weather greeted my parents' arrival at JFK on Tuesday after their first flight since October 2019 and it was still the same on Wednesday. But this was actually a good thing, as it transpired, because when a few drops of rain delayed the start of Tiafoe v Rublev, the roof slowly closed and the shutters around the top level lowered. The heat and the noise of this stunning arena was elevated as the seats slowly filled and there was gradually the sense that a moment was being created.
Adding to the layers of significance, Tiafoe is the first black American since Arthur Ashe achieved the feat 50 years ago to reach the semi-finals of the US Open.
Much less problematic but almost as frustrating has been the fact that you have to go back to 2006 to find Andy Roddick as the previous American men's player to reach this stage. Roddick also was the last man from the States to win any Slam outright, a victor almost 20 years ago at the 2003 US Open. That's a grand total of 74 consecutive majors without success, the longest such streak American men have had in the history of tennis.
Roddick was there in the crowd on Wednesday, as relieved as anyone that Tiafoe was making his mark and offering hope and sustenance in the drought-like conditions.
Ranked 13 spots above Tiafoe, Rublev was evidently unsettled by the clear favouritism showered on his opponent and when mistakes reared up, his energy lowered and after being undone by two tie-breakers, the third set was an easy one for the American.
Of course me being me, I tried to detect an anti-Russian sentiment in the air. It wasn't overly blatant but it’s always hovering, probably simply inherited from decades of geopolitical tension and sporting rivalry.
Tiafoe is now a firm darling of Arthur Ashe Stadium simply for his showbiz character and inspiring backstory. He is enjoying the limelight and New Yorkers love that positivity. At the risk of repeating myself from a similar sentiment about his much more illustrious compatriot last week, no matter what happens this evening and this weekend, he has achieved more than enough already and everything else is bonus from here on.
"I love to show the world what I can do," the No. 22 seed said Wednesday evening. "I just want to go out there and try to give the crowd what they want - and that's me getting the win."
None of the men left in the bracket has won a major trophy so Sunday will be a first on many levels and could even see Nadal toppled from his number one status for the final time. Tiatoe's first career Slam semi-final will come against third seed Carlos Alcaraz, whose monumental Thursday-at-3am win over Jannik Sinner was an even more dramatic sign of this exciting new era.
"It's taken time for us to get gradually to where we are today," said his Tiafoe’s coach and former pro player Wayne Ferreira who bemoaned the bad diet and bad habits that had been holding him back. "I kind of imagined he would be at his best by the end of next year."
For a while now, there has been a fair amount of existential dread for the health of the sport. Who would carry the torch and keep us entertained? Or would we be forced to look backwards upon the works of the big four and despair? Nothing beside remains.
On this page last week, I attempted to do justice to how the Serena retirement party was gripping this city. Inevitably because I dared speak its name, she exited that evening and deprived us of a week two for the ages but it was enjoyable while it lasted.
There is little doubt that ticket sales and TV viewing figures have suffered and will suffer for the absence of Williams and Nadal at the business end of this week but the foundation for the future is being laid very effectively.
Not just by Tiafoe but also by his opponent this evening, the incredibly charismatic Alcaraz who must be eyeing up the slowing down of Nadal through a whole other prism.
"I still don't know how I did it," the 19-year-old said of a contest that included him rallying all the way back from a saved match point that will haunt poor Sinner for some years.
Alcaraz was up late Monday night / Tuesday morning too when another five-set victory, this time over 2014 US Open champion Marin Cilic, ended at 2:23am. He is the youngest man to get this far at the US Open since Pete Sampras won the title at 19 in 1990.
My mother was buzzing after she left Arthur Ashe Stadium on Wednesday. Just like many regulars to the event, she has a new hero now that she can cheer on.
And when the rest of us zoom out from the tennis action this weekend, his should be an important and enduring story for the country at large. Best of luck to Alcaraz but Tiafoe is the athlete needed most by America as we head into an uncertain winter.
@JohnWRiordan
