NEW YORK: Rafael Nadal put his first Grand Slam defeat for more than a year down to a “bad match” as he was stunned by American Frances Tiafoe in the fourth round of the US Open.
Nadal was looking for his third slam title of the year after winning the Australian Open and French Open to take the lead in the overall race but he was overpowered by Tiafoe in a 6-4, 4-6, 6-4, 6-3 victory that blows the tournament wide open.
Having pulled out of Wimbledon injured earlier in 2022 and missing both the US Open and Wimbledon tournaments in 2021, this was Nadal’s first defeat at a slam since his loss to Novak Djokovic in the semifinals of the French Open last spring.
Nadal gave a blunt assessment of his performance on Arthur Ashe Stadium, saying: “The difference is easy: I played a bad match and he played a good match.
“I was not able to hold a high level of tennis for a long time. I was not quick enough in my movements. He was able to take the ball too many times very early, so I was not able to push him back.
“Tennis is a sport of position a lot of times. If not, you need to be very, very quick and very young. I am not in that moment any more. Well done for him. He was better than me.”
No American man has won a Grand Slam title since Andy Roddick at Flushing Meadows in 2003, by far their longest drought in tennis history.
Now Tiafoe, the 24-year-old son of immigrants from Sierra Leone who as a child slept in the office of a tennis centre in Maryland where his father was the caretaker, is right in the mix in a tournament that has lost first defending champion Daniil Medvedev and now Nadal.
RUBLEV, ALCARAZ THROUGH
Cameron Norrie’s US Open run ended with a fourth-round defeat by Andrey Rublev.
Norrie, who was once again the last British singles player standing at a Grand Slam, was looking to follow-up his run to the Wimbledon semifinals but was below his best in a 6-4, 6-4, 6-4 loss.
There is no Grand Slam winner left in the men’s draw after Spanish third seed Carlos Alcaraz beat 2014 champion Marin Cilic 6-4, 3-6,6-4, 4-6, 6-3 in Monday’s night session.
It is also the first time in nearly 20 years that Nadal, Roger Federer, Novak Djokovic and Serena Williams are all missing from the latter stages of a major tournament.
Tiafoe, who took to the court in a hoodie celebrating Williams’ greatness, said of his win: “I don’t even know what to say right now. I can’t believe it. He’s one of the greatest of all time. I played some really good tennis. Something special happened today.”
Nadal went into the US Open short on matches after suffering an abdominal tear that forced him to withdraw from Wimbledon ahead of the semifinals. He dropped sets to Rinky Hijikata and Fabio Fognini in the first two rounds but looked more like his usual self in a straight-sets victory over Richard Gasquet on Saturday.
Tiafoe, whose only previous slam quarterfinal came in Australia three years ago, had not lost a set going into the match and he exploited some sluggishness and unexpected errors from Nadal to clinch the opener.
There were some boos for Nadal when he returned from an eight-and-a-half-minute break, which included having his wrists taped to try to counter the humidity, but he took his chance at the end of the second to level the match. — dpa
