American 11th seed Tiafoe had all he could handle from his young compatriot, who hadn’t dropped a set in reaching the first Grand Slam quarter-final of his career. Frances Tiafoe rallied from two sets down — and 3-0 down in the fifth set — to hand Alex Michelsen a heartbreaking US Open defeat on Tuesday. Tiafoe edged 22-year-old Michelsen 5-7, 3-6, 7-5, 6-3, 7-6 (10/6) to reach the semi-finals at Flushing Meadows for the third time in five years. He was on the brink of another three-set win when he served for the match at 5-4 in the third, but a pair of double faults opened the door to Tiafoe and the more experienced player plowed through.
Frances Tiafoe rallied from two sets down, and 3-0 down in the fifth set, to hand Alex Michelsen a heartbreaking US Open defeat on Tuesday.
“Then after that he started playing really good. “The match was very emotionally draining. “I was joking about that, but they definitely woke up as I started to pick it up.
It would take two more sets before Tiafoe landed a forehand winner to clinch the 10-point match tiebreaker after four hours and 38 minutes, Michelsen weeping in the winner’s arms as they met at the net.
“I feel like I just handed it to him,” a dejected Michelsen, ranked 46th in the world, said. “I was trying to keep it together, and I didn’t do a good job of that,” Michelsen said. Frances, he’s such a good guy and he said a lot of personal things and just kind of got to me. “They were flat, but I was even more flat than the fans,” Tiafoe said. “The moment is huge,” said Tiafoe, who next faces either defending champion Carlos Alcaraz or eighth seeded American Ben Shelton.
