Frances Tiafoe beat Daniil Medvedev 7-6 (7-1), 6-4, 7-6 (8-6) at Louis Armstrong Stadium on the Sunday, taking two hours and 57 minutes to send the seventh seed and 2021 US Open champion out of the tournament in the fourth round. The 11th seed had lost his six previous meetings with the Russian, so it’s fair to say that this was far from a given when the match got underway, but puts Tiafoe in a position to challenge for the US Open title himself.

Tiafoe said as much himself afterwards. Whilst he has never lacked for talent, this was the scoreline he had spent years trying but failing to produce against Medvedev, saying afterwards, “What a match. Daniil has been so good and he has beaten me so many times. This is the first time I have beaten him in a regular match, so I am super pumped up about it,” Tiafoe said, before crediting the ground he calls ‘the people’s court.’

@usopen No pressure 😳 #usopen #tennis #sports #francestiafoe ♬ original sound – US Open

That home support has become the defining feature of his tournament. Tiafoe arrived at the US Open unbeaten in ten previous matches at the Louis Armstrong Stadium, so Sunday made it 11, even if it did come down to two tiebreaks either side of a break of serve in the second set. Medvedev has reached six Grand Slam finals and won only one of them, which was the 2021 US Open, perhaps explaining why losing to the 11th seed in the last 16 isn’t quite the shock of the men’s draw that it might initially appear.

Tiafoe now reaches his fourth US Open quarter-final, matching the best run of his career at the tournament that has already given him semi-final runs in both 2022 and 2024. He faces fellow American Alex Michelsen next, in an all-American last eight that Flushing Meadows has not served up in some time and that will likely leave the crowd torn in terms of its loyalties.

Whether the nerves that he demonstrated on Sunday carry him past the quarter-final is the only question worth asking now. Beating Medvedev settled one debt, but the rest of this fortnight will decide whether it was the start of something or just one good night in New York.

Credit: Oleg Yunakov, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons