Associated Press
Ben Shelton (left) defeated Frances Tiafoe in a men’s singles quarterfinal match at the US Open in New York.
CNN –
Ben Shelton pulled off an upset over fellow American and world No. 10 Frances Tiafoe in four sets in the quarterfinals of the US Open early on Wednesday.
In the first-ever US Open quarterfinal match between two black Americans, the 20-year-old Shelton defeated last year’s runner-up 6:2, 3:6, 7:6(7), 6:2 in New York.
Shelton – the youngest American man to reach a US Open semifinal since 20-year-old Michael Chang did it in 1992 – will next play 23-time Grand Slam champion Novak Djokovic on Friday.
“I feel like I left it all out here tonight. “Emotional struggle,” Shelton said after the game. “Thank you to everyone who stayed so long. Hell of an atmosphere and thanks for getting me across the finish line.”
“Sometimes you have to turn your brain off, close your eyes and just swing,” Shelton said in the third-set tiebreaker. “Maybe there was a little bit of that, up to a certain point, but in the end it worked out.”
With the win, 2022 NCAA singles champion Shelton moves from No. 47 to the top 20 in the men’s singles world rankings.
Shelton was asked if he knew who he would face next.
“Yeah, he won 23 of them or something like that,” Shelton said of Djokovic. “It doesn’t get much better than that. The last two games were tough. I played Americans, but hopefully you’ll bring it to me in two nights.”