Frances Tiafoe blamed his heartbreaking five-set US Open semi-final defeat to Taylor Fritz on cramping after his “body shut down”. Tiafoe twice led within the match however the remaining set lasted simply 27 minutes during which he was damaged thrice and picked up simply 9 factors. “I was the better player for sure tonight. In the fourth set, I just had some in-and-out cramps. I felt like my body just kind of shut down on me,” stated the Twentieth-ranked Tiafoe after his 4-6, 7-5, 4-6, 6-4, 6-1 defeat.
As Fritz celebrated turning into the primary American man to achieve a Grand Slam remaining since Andy Roddick in 2009, Tiafoe was left to rue a second US Open semi-final loss in his final three appearances.
In 2022, he misplaced one other five-setter towards eventual champion Carlos Alcaraz.
“Probably had a lot to do with nerves. I wasn’t tired at all,” Tiafoe stated.
“The closest I was obviously when I played Alcaraz I was kind of hanging for dear life to go five. Here I was really in a position to win. I got ahead of myself and I promise it’s not going to happen to me again.”
World quantity 12 Fritz, in the meantime, will face top-ranked Jannik Sinner in Sunday’s remaining having by no means beforehand obtained previous the quarter-finals of a Grand Slam.
He will try and turn into the primary American man to win a Grand Slam title since Roddick on the 2003 US Open.
“It was a crazy match. A lot of it was about handling the moment and the pressure,” stated Fritz.
“He was playing at such a high level in the third and fourth sets. It was about staying in it, withstanding the pressure and hope that at a certain point the errors would come. It got to that point in the end.”
This yr’s US Open was thrown huge open by the primary week exits of four-time champion Novak Djokovic and Alcaraz.
Fourth-ranked Alexander Zverev additionally didn’t make the semi-finals.
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