Frances Tiafoe rallied from two sets down and trailed 3-0 in the fifth before completing one of the great US Open comebacks, beating Alex Michelsen 5-7, 3-6, 7-5, 6-3, 7-6 (10-6) in 4 hours and 38 minutes Tuesday to reach his third US Open semifinal.
After the match ended, Tiafoe jogged to the other side of the net. Michelsen cried on his shoulder. He said afterward that he genuinely likes Michelsen and wanted to go over and acknowledge him. He said he didn’t think it was going to be as emotional as it was but that he understood the moment.
He quoted Tiafoe offering reassurance, telling him he would be back in this kind of moment and that when Tiafoe was older they would play again like this.
How the comeback happened
Michelsen had been the dominant player in this tournament, the only man who hadn’t dropped a set through the quarterfinals. He served for the match leading 5-4 in the third, but opened with consecutive double faults and eventually lost that game when he could not put away a shot at the net. From there, the momentum shifted.
Michelsen broke early in the fifth set and led 3-0, at which point Tiafoe slammed his racket in frustration. He recovered, and in the match tiebreaker he won three straight points to lead 7-4, then hit an ace at 135 miles per hour after Michelsen narrowed it to 7-6 to close it out.
He admitted his start was slow and flat. He said three-out-of-five is a blessing because you have time to get it together, and that he waited until the last minute.
The comeback from two sets down in a US Open men’s quarterfinal had only happened five times in the Open era. The last time before Tuesday was Roger Federer against Gael Monfils in 2014. The last US Open men’s quarterfinal to go to a deciding-set tiebreak before Tuesday was in 2019, also featuring Monfils.
What it means
He joins Andre Agassi as the only American men to reach three US Open semifinals this century. All three of Tiafoe’s major semifinal appearances have come at Flushing Meadows, in 2022, 2024 and now 2026. He will return to the top 10 for the first time since September 2023 in the next ATP rankings update.
He will face Ben Shelton on Friday in a semifinal that will be the first major meeting at the semifinals stage or later between Black American men in the Open era. One of them will become the first Black American man to reach a US Open final since Arthur Ashe in 1972.
He told the Arthur Ashe crowd he plans to enjoy the Shelton-Alcaraz match and said let’s go.
The 22-year-old fell to 0-6 in five-set matches and had won 14 sets in a row before losing three straight.
