*Flushing, New York – Frances Tiafoe and Ben Shelton won’t any longer be repping the US Open as of “Black Friday.” Both men typically surge in New York and were on the list of contenders to possibly break the Grand Slam title drought for American men. But it wasn’t to be; they’ve packed it up and shipped out.
Ben Shelton came into this year’s US Open a favorite, enjoying the highest ranking of his pro career, no. 6, and with significant momentum given his lead up results. He faced 89th-ranked, 35-year-old veteran, Adrian Mannarino, in a match on Friday inside Armstrong Stadium, with most predicting he’d secure the win. Shelton did come out firing and took the first set, 6-3, with his commando brand of tennis, but errors began creeping in during the second and he ended up dropping it, 3-6.
The 6th seeded American had a losing record (1-2) to Mannarino – 13 years his senior, likely due to the craftiness of his game, but their last meeting was before Ben found his recent “devastating” form and confidence. So, no sweat for former college stand out to rebound after dropping a set.
But the match took an unexpected turn late in the 3rd; Ben went for a shot then winced and grabbed his shoulder. He shook it off and played through the game, but he stopped midway through the next and called for the physios. He was briefly treated then resumed play, taking the 3rd set 6-4. It was then that he took a medical time out before starting the 4th … but as play commenced, the “worst pain he’s ever felt” got even worse. He and his team determined he couldn’t go on and needed to pull the plug. He shook hands with Mandarino amid tears and quickly exited the court.
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Utterly dejected, Shelton retired at 6-3, 3-6, 6-4, 4-6, his first ever retirement from a match.
“You know, I never retired before. I’m not a guy who would retire if I could continue,” he lamented.
“I mean, I was just trying to adjust and figure out whatever I can to keep competing, you know. Even though I was in pain, I was just kind of in that competitive mindset of trying to find a way and push through it … usually I’ll play through anything and just kind of find a way … I never felt anything like this before. So, yeah, that was kind of tough …”
So, Shelton was down and ultimately OUT … but Frances Tiafoe was across the grounds simultaneously in action inside Grandstand stadium.
Tiafoe always surges at the US Open. Early on in his pro career his US Open opening rounds were against giants like Roger Federer and – literal giant – John Isner with his giant serve. So, he wasn’t yet able to advance. But even then he wasn’t a walkover, pushing both men to 5 sets. Since then, Tiafoe has become a force in his own right, with his best results in New York being the semis (‘22, ‘24).
This year, the world no. 12 seemed to be on par to follow the script. He routinely dispatched his rounds 1 and 2 opponents, but came up against a dangerous floater in the third, 35-year-old German veteran, Jan-Lennard Struff who was poised to completely flip it. Struff’s ranking is deceptively low, at #144, but he’s been ranked as high as world no. 21 … and he’s fresh off knocking out the 11th seeded Holger Rune in a 5-set thriller just a couple nights before.
Struff’s confidence was off-the-meter.
Tiafoe and team were likely aware off the impending threat, but “Big Foe” isn’t typically short on confidence. He hasn’t had the best lead-up results, but New York is his sweet spot and neither he nor analyst were afraid he wouldn’t make it through.
But he didn’t.
Maybe the Struff vs Rune results coupled with his “still recovering” form coming into New York got into Tiafoe’s head, but he started the match flat. His serve wasn’t serving and his ground strokes weren’t really stroking. Struff, on the other hand, was seeing the ball like it was a basketball and refused to miss on critical points. The German’s service points won percentage was sitting at 88 (Tiafoe’s at 70%) and he won 5 of 10 breakpoints (Tiafoe, only 2 of 2).
Most other stats were pretty similar, but those two proved a recipe for disaster for Frances.
Americans were still licking their wounds from Ben’s early exit, then Tiafoe poured the salt. He stayed on the ropes the entire match. The DC native easily dropped the 1st set after being broken at an inopportune time, then rinsed and repeated his challenges s in the 2nd and dropped it, too.
If there were a time to fight, it would’ve been then, in that third critical set in the best of 5 when you’re down 0-2. But Tiafoe has only come back from 2 sets down to win a match twice in his career, so the odds were stacked against him.
Struff’s level never dropped and you could see Tiafoe was hanging on by a thread. They stayed even through 3-4, but that’s when Tiafoe’s errors got the best of him and he dropped serve for 3-5, with Struff serving for the match. And the way Struff was playing, the “fat lady” was making her way to the mic.
But, Struff had a moment of “I’m about to beat Frances Tiafoe at the US Open and make the 4th round for the first time.” He panicked, double-faulting three times back to back and missed a ground stroke to let Tiafoe back in the match for 4-5. Tiafoe held to go up 6-5 and had chances to take set, but at breakpoint a cross-court forehand missed by a hair, forcing a tiebreaker.
Tiebreakers are stressful enough on their face. But if you’re at your home Slam, with your country’s hope on your shoulders … and down zero sets to two, the writing is on the wall and that fat lady is cueing up.
And as that “writing” would have it, Tiafoe fought the good fight and had a set point, but he couldn’t close it out and faltered, 4-6, 3-6, 6-7. That was the end of his run.
“Obviously he’s a hell of a player,” he said. “He’s been highly ranked. He played well today. Served pretty well. His percentage wasn’t so high, but he served pretty well, especially early in games. So it was kind of tough to get my feet in games.”
“The match was always kind of on his racquet. I had a little window there when he just gave me some gifts. I didn’t take it.”
And that sums up Black Friday, donned that figuratively but literally, the two hopeful black guys were sent home packing, both ironically by 35-year-old vets.
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