Tiafoe

The third-round action draws to a close Saturday at ATPTour.com looks ahead at some standout matches from [12] A first clay-court meeting between Tiafoe and Zverev will bring two of the biggest baseline hitters on Tour together on Court Zverev leads Tiafoe 6-1 in the pair’s ATP Head2Head series, but the pair has not met since 2021 in Vienna. Since then, Tiafoe has risen to the brink of the Top 10 in the Pepperstone ATP Rankings and reached his maiden Grand Slam semi-final at the 2022 [4] Last year’s finalist Ruud has made a fast start to his latest The fourth seed’s next challenge is a maiden ATP Head2Head meeting with [6] Rune competes for the first time since Tuesday after his second-round opponent Olivieri is enjoying a breakout run of his own this year in Paris. He had not played a tour-level main draw match prior to this week, but the 24-year-old saw off

Frances Tiafoe celebrates his shock victory over Rafael Nadal in the last-16 of the US Open at Flushing Meadows. Photograph: Angela Weiss/AFP/Getty Images Frances Tiafoe celebrates his shock victory over Rafael Nadal in the last-16 of the US Open at Flushing Meadows. Photograph: Angela Weiss/AFP/Getty Images N o sooner had Frances Tiafoe walked off the court after completing the “To see them experience me beat Rafa Nadal?” recalled Tiafoe, a 24-year-old from Hyattsville, Maryland, who is seeded 22nd at Flushing Meadows. “They’ve seen me have big wins, but to beat those Mount Rushmore guys, for them, I can’t imagine what was going through their heads. They’re going to remember today for the rest of their lives.” By toppling Nadal in four sets and ending the Spaniard’s 22-match win streak at major tournaments, Tiafoe has become the youngest American man to reach the last eight at the US Open since Andy Roddick in 2006. He will attempt to extend his dream one step further on Wednesday at the world’s biggest tennis stadium when he faces ninth-seeded Andrey Rublev for a spot in the semi-finals. The American’s extraordinary backstory has been well-documented in tennis circles for years, but Tiafoe’s headline-grabbing win on Monday in one of the few events where the US mainstream leans forward and pays attention – which earned him shoutouts from NBA superstars Tiafoe’s parents each fled from Sierra Leone separately during the African nation’s civil war in the early 1990s and sett...