American tennis stars Ben Shelton and Frances Tiafoe saw their U.S. Open runs end less than an hour apart Friday in New York, one by retirement and the other by a straight-sets trouncing.
Shelton fought through pain in his left shoulder throughout the fourth set of his match against Frenchman Adrian Mannarino, then retired before the fifth set could start. The No. 6 seed traded sets with his opponent 6-3, 3-6, 6-4, 4-6 up until that point.
Soon after, German qualifier Jan-Lennard Struff completed his second consecutive upset when he took down 17th seed Tiafoe 6-4, 6-3, 7-6 (7). Struff previously toppled No. 11 Holger Rune of Denmark in five sets and now heads to his first U.S. Open fourth round at 35 years old.
One member of the U.S. contingent did advance to the fourth round, as No. 4 Taylor Fritz pushed past Swiss qualifier Jerome Kym 7-6 (3), 6-7 (9), 6-4, 6-4. Fritz failed to take advantage of three set points in the second-set tiebreaker before recovering to take the last two sets.
Shelton, whose injury was to his serving shoulder, had fired 11 aces and won 61 of 80 first-service points (76.3 percent) before he retired. The injury may have come on a remarkable set point in the third set, in which Shelton dove near the back wall and perfectly placed a backhander in the far left corner of Mannarino’s court, inducing an error.
“You won’t hear me pouting about how bad things are,” Shelton said in his postmatch press conference. “The summer that I have and what I’ve been able to do in this sport in a short amount of time.”
Shelton, 22, reached the semifinals of the Australian Open, the fourth round of the French Open and the quarterfinals at Wimbledon earlier this year — all career bests. The 2023 U.S. Open semifinalist was among a handful of favorites to claim the trophy in New York.
“A small setback like this, it hurts, yeah,” Shelton said. “Yeah, I was playing really well. I was in form, (had) a lot of confidence. There’s just so many things to be happy with — the way I was playing, moving on the court, competing. Like I said, it’s been a great summer.”
This marked the first time he has retired in his 178 career matches.
“When he started to have pain, he was leading in the match,” Mannarino said in his on-court interview. “Honestly, he probably would’ve won that match. That’s unfortunate for him, and lucky for me. I don’t really know what to say right now. I’m happy to be through but I wish him the best, of course.”
Like Struff, the 37-year-old Mannarino reached the fourth round at Flushing Meadows for the first time. His opponent will be Czech 20th seed Jiri Lehecka, who eliminated Belgian Raphael Collignon 6-4, 6-4, 6-4.
Tiafoe held a 15-14 edge over Struff in aces, and the German committed nine more unforced errors. But Struff won 46 of 52 first-service points (88.5 percent) and broke Tiafoe’s serve five times in 10 opportunities.
The biggest names in action Friday, No. 2 Carlos Alcaraz of Spain and No. 7 Novak Djokovic of Serbia, both advanced.
Alcaraz had his serve broken for the first time this tournament and used a medical timeout to receive right knee treatment, but he returned to win the next seven games on his way to a 6-2, 6-4, 6-0 victory over Italy’s Luciano Darderi.
“I’m feeling good, it was just a precaution that I asked for the physio,” Alcaraz said when asked about the medical timeout. “When he broke my serve, in the last point I felt something in the knee, but after five or six points it was gone. I just asked the physio to take care of the knee, so I had to be feeling good. I am going to talk to my team about it, but I’m feeling good.”
Alcaraz’s fourth-round opponent will be Arthur Rinderknech, who got past fellow Frenchman Benjamin Bonzi 4-6, 6-3, 6-3, 6-2.
Djokovic emerged with a 6-4, 6-7 (4), 6-2, 6-3 victory over Great Britain’s Cameron Norrie. Next up for Djokovic is Struff.
No. 21 Tomas Machac of the Czech Republic rolled past France’s Ugo Blanchet 7-5, 6-3, 6-1 to earn a match against Fritz.
–Field Level Media
