At the end of more than four and a half hours of escalating drama inside the world’s biggest tennis stadium, a devastated Alex Michelsen fell into Frances Tiafoe’s arms just outside the tramlines, sobbing uncontrollably. Tiafoe took his younger countryman in an embrace and held him there for 23 seconds, the victor consoling the vanquished in the aftermath of an extraordinary comeback that had carried him, somehow, into the US Open semi-finals.
Only a couple of hours earlier, the 28-year-old Tiafoe had been two sets down and two points from elimination in the third set, with Michelsen within touching distance of the biggest victory of his young career. Instead, Tiafoe roared back from the brink to win a quarter-final that will be long remembered in New York, outlasting Michelsen 5-7, 3-6, 7-5, 6-3, 7-6 (6) on Tuesday afternoon to reach the last four at Flushing Meadows for the third time in five years. Now he will face Ben Shelton on Friday after the American ousted defending champion Carlos Alcaraz in another epic five-set marathon that ended at 3.33am on Wednesday morning.
“The moment is huge. Can’t downplay it at all,” Tiafoe said. “The way it happened, right? Two sets to love down, him serving for it, I’m down breaks early in the fifth. There were so many times where I was down. … It was definitely a Braveheart-type win. It ranks pretty high in probably all-time wins in a slam.”
The pulsating contest unfolded inside a half-empty Arthur Ashe Stadium amid an oddly subdued atmosphere for an all-American quarter-final, with many spectators taking a break after Aryna Sabalenka’s grueling three-set win over Linda Noskova in the day’s opener. The setting was hardly ideal for the 11th-seeded Tiafoe, who had played all four previous rounds in the more intimate cauldron of Louis Armstrong Stadium next door, where he thrives on the crowd’s energy and has yet to lose in 10 career matches.
For much of the day it was Michelsen, the unseeded 22-year-old from the Orange County suburb of Laguna Hills, about halfway between Los Angeles and San Diego, who appeared bound for the signature win of a career that has come spectacularly into bloom over the past 10 days. The opening set lurched through four breaks in the first five games before Michelsen was first to find his footing. Tiafoe fought off a set point at 4-5, only for Michelsen to hold at love before pouncing again at 6-5, breaking his opponent’s serve to close out the set after 50 minutes.
Michelsen tightened his grip early in the second as Tiafoe continued to play from behind on his serve, falling behind in five of his first seven service games while getting broken three times. Michelsen broke for 3-1, fought off two break points to consolidate, then broke again for 5-1 after getting the best of a punishing 24-shot exchange before serving out the set. So far, so good.
The match appeared in hand after Michelsen broke again early in the third, eased through his service games and survived a gut-check eighth game, where he fell behind love-40 but calmly brushed aside all three break points before holding for 5-3, including the second with a blistering 134mph ace. One hold of serve from becoming the first American man to reach the last four at the US Open without dropping a set since Jim Courier in 1991, the nerves finally surfaced as Michelsen opened with back-to-back double faults before Tiafoe broke to level at 5-all.
Thrown a lifeline and suddenly energized, Tiafoe held for 6-5, then pressed again as Michelsen served to force a tiebreak. Michelsen saved one set point with a 133mph ace, but Tiafoe manufactured another and this time Michelsen cracked, missing a forehand volley to hand Tiafoe the set 7-5 and drag the match into a fourth.
“You’re four points away from making a semi-final of the US Open,” Michelsen said. “After I double-faulted twice, I was like, ‘Oh, here we go. It’s not good.’ I feel like I just handed it to him. Then after that he started playing really good.”
By now the near-capacity crowd was back in their seats and the complexion of the match had shifted completely. Tiafoe had ended the third on a heater, peeling off 17 of the last 22 points, and rode it into the fourth, breaking early as his movement sharpened, the forehand began doing more damage and the Ashe crowd buzzed at the possibility of a comeback.
Michelsen, remarkably composed for most of the afternoon, suddenly looked downcast and occasionally panicked, making 16 unforced errors in the fourth and at one point gently tossing his racket toward the court in frustration. He broke back for 3-2 after a bruising 14-point game, but Tiafoe, now playing with the freedom of a man gifted second life, immediately broke again and held firm from there, serving out the set to force a decider.
“He wasn’t playing like Frances,” Michelsen said. “Then I kind of let him back in at 5-4. Then after that, he was playing, you know, like Frances does on Ashe. After that, it was a dogfight.”
The fifth produced the best tennis of the match, both men hitting more winners than unforced errors as the quality somehow rose into the fifth hour. Michelsen regrouped first, breaking Tiafoe at love for 2-0 and consolidating for 3-0, only for Tiafoe to break back shortly after and restore parity. From there neither man yielded. Tiafoe, who had managed only three aces through four sets, uncorked seven of them in the fifth, including three in the final four points of a tense hold for 5-all. Michelsen recovered from love-30 in the next game, prevailing in a 19-shot exchange at 30-all before holding for 6-5. Tiafoe answered once more to force a deciding first-to-10-points tiebreaker, where the pressure only intensified and his greater experience and nerve management finally told.
Tiafoe opened a 6-4 lead in before Michelsen clawed back within a point, but a 135mph ace gave Tiafoe an 8-6 cushion and a Michelsen backhand error brought up three match points. Michelsen saved the first, only for Tiafoe to finish the job on the next with a forehand passing-shot winner, sealing the victory after 4hr 38min. Tiafoe briefly gestured to roaring crowd before quickly finding his opponent in front of the umpire’s chair, while Michelsen was quickly overcome by tears and eventually walked off Ashe with a dark blue towel pulled over his head.
“I think it was a combination of a lot of things,” Michelsen said. “The match was very emotionally draining. Then, you know, it’s just Frances. I don’t think anyone else could have made me cry in that moment, to be honest. Maybe Learner [Tien]. But Frances, he’s such a good guy, and he said a lot of personal things and just kind of got to me.”
Said Tiafoe: “I really like Alex. I really, really do. And I just wanted to come up there and just dap him up. I didn’t think it was going to be as long as it was, but I understand the moment. He was definitely crying on my shoulders. Yeah, we just had some words for each other, and that was it.”
For Michelsen, the defeat brought a brutal end to the deepest grand slam run of his young career. The world No 46 had not dropped a set through four rounds, knocking out the 16th seed Brandon Nakashima and 27th seed Tomas Martín Etcheverry while becoming the first man born in 2004 to reach a major quarter-final. On Tuesday, he came within two points of carrying that flawless run all the way to the semi-finals.
The victory continued a remarkable fortnight for Tiafoe, whose momentum has steadily gathered pace since finding himself two sets to one down against Martin Damm in the opening round. After straight-sets victories over Rei Sakamoto, Valentin Vacherot and seventh-seeded Daniil Medvedev, he found himself staring at an even deeper hole on Tuesday before producing the third comeback from two sets down of his career.
It also marked another milestone in Tiafoe’s enduring love affair with the US Open. The native of Hyattsville, Maryland, who first reached the last four here in 2022 before returning to the same stage two years later, became only the second American man this century to reach three US Open semi-finals along with Andre Agassi.
“I’m just a different person in general,” Tiafoe said. “Those two runs were great, something I will cherish forever, but I’m not that person who I was when I made one in 2022 and when I made one in ’24. I’m not that person. I’m excited to see what this me does come Friday.”
