By Shara Talia Talyor
Labor Day weekend was victorious for 26-year-old Frances Tiafoe, who advanced to the the US. Open quarterfinals after defeating 25-year-old Alexei Popyrin 6-4, 7-6 (7-3), 2-6, 6-3 Sunday night.
The American tennis professional, ranked at No. 20 in the world in men’s singles, took on the 28th world ranked Australian pro in front of loudly cheering fans at Arthur Ashe Stadium. Tiafoe started strong and won the first set, came from behind to take the second set in a tiebreaker and adjusted from his opponent’s success to claim the match in the fourth set.
“I think the second set was a huge huge win for me,” Tiafoe said following the match, happy with the outcome. “He did a great job in the third set. He changed his tactics on me and really got me of sorts.”
Popyrin, who defeated the 2023 US Open champion, Novak Djokovic earlier during the week, said his modifications against Tiafoe helped him in the third set.
“I think he’s got one of the best backhands in the world, honestly,” he said about Tiafoe. “I think I neutralized it well with the slightest game getting different looks on the return.”
He also adjusted to Tiafoe’s serve.
“I found it really hard reading his serve in the first two sets and he was serving quite well, but put some pressure on his second serves and that’s what I did in the third set,” he said. “Tried to continue in the fourth set, but I think the level of tennis in that fourth set was really high and it could have gone either way.”
Tiafoe had 14 total aces and landed 52% of his first serves in the match. Popyrin had 24 aces and made 55% of his first serves in the match. Popyrin grappled with nine double faults, while Tiafoe served only one. Tiafoe said the humidity affected his game in the third set in addition to Popyrin’s changes in the match.
“When he was playing slower it kind of felt harder to hit through them,” he said.
However, he fine-tuned his play to Popyrin’s game in the fourth set.
“He played a lot of my hard balls, and roped me into coming forward, slicing back,” he said. “I think in the fourth I started taking my time, stopped rushing.”
Tiafoe powered past Ben Shelton, ranked 13th in the world in singles, to face Popyrin. He then advanced to face No. 9 Grigor Dimitrov Tuesday evening.
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