Frances Tiafoe suffered a disappointing third round exit at the US Open this year.
Tiafoe is a two-time US Open semifinalist, and was looking to go even further in 2025.
However, this bid came to an end in the third round, as Tiafoe was beaten by qualifier Jan-Lennard Struff to suffer his earliest US Open exit since 2019.
This was a disappointing night for American tennis, with both Ben Shelton and Tiafoe exiting the US Open, and now Andy Roddick has given advice to the latter.
Andy Roddick gives advice to Frances Tiafoe after his US Open exit
Tiafoe was looking to become the first American man to win a Grand Slam singles title since Roddick won the US Open in 2003.
As a result of his third round defeat, Tiafoe will drop 700 ranking points and is at risk of falling outside the top 30 for the first time since March 2022.
When discussing Tiafoe’s US Open defeat on his podcast, Roddick told his compatriot that he needed to do a ‘hard reset’ and put more focus into his upcoming tournaments.
“It’s a rough day for the rest of the Americans,” said Roddick. “Struff goes through Tiafoe in three sets, and now Frances is looking at a rankings drop outside of the top 25. I want to say he’s gonna land somewhere around 30, so there’s a hard reset where all of a sudden.
“At this time yesterday morning, Frances is going, ‘Okay, I’m gonna make another run at the US Open to, gosh, you know what? I need to make some ground up, so I’m seeded at the Australian Open’, and Frances has done an amazing job the last couple of years of kind of needing this tournament and this stretch.
“Like, last year, he was in a similar kind of ranking situation, then ripped off the finals of Cincinnati and the semis of the U.S Open. He kind of reset, got himself seeded for all of the tournaments. He’s gonna have to do a pretty hard reset here.
“I mean, straight sets to Struff, and Struff is the kind of guy that can take the racket out of your hand. Very streaky player, 35 years old, but likes to come forward.
“I think the biggest thing where Frances struggles a little bit and he knows this, like, he’s playing the matches, is defending his second serve, right?
“Yesterday in the first two sets, I want to say he defended 30 ish percent in the first in the first set, and then like 40% in the second set, it was a little better than the third set, where they held through to the tiebreaker, but has to find a way to defend that second serve a little bit easier when you’re only serving just over 50% through the first two sets.
“I think that was the entire deal, right? Your entire game flows from there. If you’re defending your second serve easily, you can open up the shoulders, you can take some more cuts. But props to Struff.”
What is next for Frances Tiafoe?
As Tiafoe now looks to put his US Open disappointment behind him, he will remain in the States for the time being.
Although Roddick suggested that Tiafoe needs to focus on improving his ranking again, his next event will offer no ranking points.
Tiafoe will play at the Laver Cup in San Francisco next, making a joint-record sixth appearance at the event for Team World.
After that, Tiafoe will head to Asia for the Japan Open, the ATP 500 tournament where he is a former runner-up.
Tiafoe is set for a significant rankings drop after the US Open, but he will have chances to make that up before the end of the season as he is defending only 160 points until 2026.
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