US Open: American Tiafoe ends Nadal’s 22-match grand slam winning streak
Tennis icon Rafael Nadal suffered a shock exit at the US Open after Frances Tiafoe ended the Spaniard’s 22-match grand-slam singles winning streak.
The result added salt to Cameron Norrie’s wounds because the Briton would have been playing Tiafoe, the world No 26 from the United States, in a quarter-final on Wednesday rather than Nadal had he won his contest against Russia’s Andrey Rublev.
Nadal, 36, never looked in good shape throughout his run here. After pulling out of the Wimbledon semi-finals in July with an abdominal injury, he tried hard to get back to full fitness in time for the final grand slam of the year. But he increasingly struggled to win free points on his serve as the tournament progressed, with the height of the contact between the racket and the ball gradually reducing in every match he played.
This was the third time in four matches that Nadal lost the first set. As ever, he battled hard by levelling the match at one set all, but there was only so much he could do with his ailing body. He repeatedly looked slow in getting to the ball, and the 24-year-old Tiafoe took full advantage by hitting some blistering groundstroke winners.
“The difference is easy,” Nadal said, “I played a bad match and he played a good match. At the end that’s it. I was not able to cause great damage. He was better than me.
“I was not able to hold a high level of tennis for a long time. I was not quick enough on my movements. He was able to take the ball too many times very early, so I was not able to push him back. Tennis is a sport of positions a lot of times. If not, you need to be very, very quick and very young. I am not in that moment anymore.”
There was a brief wobble by Tiafoe in the fourth set when the roof was slowly closed during the rallies because of an approaching rain cloud. “I’m tossing the ball and I can see the f***ing thing closing,” he complained to the umpire. But after going 3-1 down, he quickly refocused to win five straight games for the match.
“I’m so happy,” Tiafoe said. “He’s one of the greatest of all time and I played unbelievable tennis. Something special happened today.”
Meanwhile, the French Open champion Iga Swiatek recovered from a set and a break down to see off 108th-ranked German opponent Jule Niemeier 2-6, 6-4, 6-0 and become the first Polish woman to reach the quarter-final in New York.
In a mistake-riddled clash on Louis Armstrong Court, there were a total of 15 double faults, 12 breaks of serve and 76 unforced errors.
“It’s really satisfying. This is my first quarter-final in New York so I am really proud of it,” Swiatek said.
The Wimbledon quarter-finalist Niemeier hadn’t won a hard-court match in her career before coming to New York.
However, she went into Monday’s match not having dropped a set and fired up to repeat her Wimbledon journey where she had also beaten world No 2 Anett Kontaveit.
The 23-year-old from Dortmund swept through the opener and broke to lead 2-1 in the second set before Swiatek recovered to take control and reach her third grand-slam quarter-final of 2022.
Swiatek will face the US eighth seed Jessica Pegula for a place in the semi-finals. Pegula became the second American woman into the last eight after brushing aside the two-times Wimbledon champion Petra Kvitova 6-3, 6-2. Pegula joins fellow American Coco Gauff in the last eight. Compatriot Danielle Collins could join them in the last eight if she can beat Belarusian Aryna Sabalenka.
