Frances Tiafoe’s fairytale run at the Cincinnati Open was ended by a ruthless Jannik Sinner in Monday’s championship match.
After a nervy first set, the world number one slammed his foot on the gas to pull clear in a straight-sets triumph, winning 7-6(4) 6-2 in under two hours.
Tiafoe, who has been tipped to go deep at the US Open, will be content with his showing over the last few weeks.
The 26-year-old skipped the Olympics to focus his efforts on the lead-up to his native major, but boy did he make it count.
Tiafoe surged into his maiden ATP Masters 1000 final and is now back inside the world’s top 20.
What did Frances Tiafoe say about Carlos Alcaraz?
Jannik Sinner appears to have rekindled his form just in time for the all-important US Open, having claimed his first title since June.
But the same can’t be said for Carlos Alcaraz or Daniil Medvedev, who both looked out-of-sorts in their second-round defeats.
After his stellar run to the final, Frances Tiafoe offered his thoughts on the current state of tennis.
“I think the depth in tennis is a joke right now,” Tiafoe said in his post-match press conference. “I think anybody can clip anybody.
“If you are not ready to go you are probably going to be clipped, it showed for me. If you take the game for granted, you’re not sharp, you may have something going on and not fully present, someone will beat you.
“You have seen [Jiri] Lehecka beating Medvedev, Alcaraz losing. If you are not sharp, you are going to lose.
“It’s a good and bad thing. You want to see the top players play on the weekend but at the same time it’s great for the game of tennis, there’s so many players who can win. The fans get to know new people and new players so it’s great.”
Is Tiafoe a contender for the US Open?
It’s no surprise that Tiafoe feels at home when he hits the hard courts of America.
At this stage in 2022, he produced an awe-inspiring run to reach the semi-final of the US Open, only to be beaten in a five-set thriller by Alcaraz, the eventual champion.
A year later, Tiafoe was on track to emulate that run and go even further, but he came unstuck in the quarter-final by an explosive Ben Shelton, who was enjoying his breakthrough moment.
But this year, the 26-year-old seems to have tapped into the currents at just the right time.
If Tiafoe can sustain this momentum, we will likely see him go deep into the second week at Flushing Meadows.
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