New York: Frances Tiafoe is getting the rematch he wants, a second shot at Ben Shelton at the U.S. Open.
Tiafoe had short work on the steamiest day of the tournament thus far, with temperatures in New York surpassing 90 degrees Fahrenheit (32 degrees Celsius). Three men's matches ended when an opponent stopped playing, the last one sending defending champion Novak Djokovic to the third round when Laslo Djere retired early in the third set with what appeared to be pain near his hip after they played for more than two hours across the first two sets.
“You know, in the end, not the kind of finish that we players or crowd wants to see, but I think it’s probably due to that physical battle that we had in the opening two sets,” the No. 2-seeded Djokovic said.
Tiafoe, the No. 20 seed, won the first two sets before his opponent, Alexander Shevchenko, retired after the first game of the third set.
Shelton, the No. 13 seed, later beat Roberto Bautista Agut 6-3, 6-4, 6-4. He ousted Tiafoe last year in the quarterfinals , stopping Tiafoe from what would have been a second straight trip to the U.S. Open semifinals.
“Obviously he’s very much like me in how excited and energetic he is on the court,” Tiafoe said, “and has such a big game and big shots and serves big and gets the crowd going.”
Well, maybe not quite as well as Tiafoe does.
“I know that the people love him here. Probably more than me. He’s electric here, and his crowds are electric here,” the 21-year-old Shelton said.
“It will be a battle. It will be a war just like the last two times we’ve played. Yeah, I’m more than excited to be out there with him again.”
They were two of the four American men to reach the third round in the bottom half of the draw. No. 12 Taylor Fritz got there by beating Matteo Berrettini 6-3, 7-6 (1), 6-1, while Brandon Nakashima beat Arthur Cazaux and will next play No. 18 Lozenzo Musetti, the bronze medalist at the Olympics.
