New York: Frances Tiafoe sent the home crowd into a frenzy after beating ninth seed Russian Andrey Rublev 7-6(3), 7-6(0), 6-4, becoming the first American to advance to the US Open men’s singles semifinals since 2006.
The 24-year-old No. 22 seed continued his good form after he ousted 22-time Grand Slam champion, Rafael Nadal, in the fourth round.
“This is wild. This is crazy. Having the biggest win in my life 24 hours ago [then] come back and back it up,” Tiafoe said. “It’s huge growth. It’s tough to turn the page.”
Tiafoe’s first career Grand Slam semifinal will come on Friday against 19-year-old Spaniard Carlos Alcaraz, who had a marathon duel that lasted more than five hours to beat Italy’s Jannik Sinner 6-3, 6-7(7), 6-7(0), 7-5, 6-3 in five sets.
World No. 1 Iga Swiatek of Poland advanced to her first US Open semifinals after eliminating No. 8 Jessica Pegula, the last American standing in the women’s singles 6-3, 7-6(4). The back-and-forth second set saw both players combine 10 breaks in its 12 games.
“I’m really happy that I’m working to keep my expectations low because today was such a tough match,” said Swiatek. “The level was great, so I’m really happy that I handled it.”
The 21-year-old will then face Aryna Sabalenka of Belarus in the semifinals after the sixth seed’s 6-1, 7-6(4) dismissal of 2016 US Open runner-up Karolina Pliskova earlier.
China’s Zhang Shuai and Mate Pavic of Croatia were stunned by Belgium’s Kirsten Flipkens and Edouard Roger-Vasselin of France 6-4, 7-5, 10-6 in the mixed doubles semifinals.
