Frances Tiafoe was left in shock after his compatriot Tommy Paul overcame Alejandro Tabilo at the Shanghai Masters.
Paul is into the Shanghai Masters round of 16 after his phenomenal fightback over Tabilo, with the American winning 6-7(2-7), 7-6(8-6), 6-2.
The 11th seed has now set up a round of 16 meeting with 30th seed Tomas Machac, having lost at that stage of the Japan Open last month.
His fellow American Tiafoe suffered an early Japan Open exit, losing in the round of 32 to compatriot Brandon Nakashima.
The US Open semi-finalist then continued his poor form as he lost his Shanghai Masters round of 32 meeting with Roman Safiullin.
Frances Tiafoe messages Tommy Paul after his latest Shanghai Masters win
Tiafoe beat Zhou Yi 6-2, 6-4 in their round of 64 tie, but the 13th seed was then the victim of a comeback as he lost 7-5, 5-7, 6-7(5-7) to Safiullin.
But before his exit, Tiafoe did his best to tune into compatriot Paul’s superb victory over Tabilo in Shanghai.
Asked in his latest press conference if he caught any of Paul’s match, Tiafoe said: “Braveheart. I messaged him this morning, Braveheart, man. I saw, I was watching, he lost the first, he wasn’t playing that great, a little flat.
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“Then I saw he got broken early in the second, and kind of turned it off, so I watched some Netflix. Looked again at the scores, now he’s 5-2, I thought, Well, he’s done.
“Go to sleep. Wake up, like, I doze off, wake up, it’s 6-all in the breaker, so turn it on. On my phone I got the eSIM now, so I feel like I’m back in America. I turn it on, 6-all, wins the breaker. And I didn’t know he was down five match points until today when he told me.
“Incredible effort. Those wins go a long way, and hopefully he uses that to carry on. I don’t know who he plays next, but that was big last night.”
Frances Tiafoe suffers shock early Shanghai Masters exit
Most of the big names are progressing at the Shanghai Masters, with fans set to be in for a real treat in China.
However, many top players will fall given the draw, with Stefanos Tsitsipas meeting Daniil Medvedev in the round of 16.
Another intriguing clash involves world number one Jannik Sinner and Tiafoe’s recent Laver Cup teammate Ben Shelton.
Laver Cup record-breaker Carlos Alcaraz meanwhile takes on Gael Monfils, with Taylor Fritz and Grigor Dimitrov also going strong.
Tiafoe would have undoubtedly been eyeing a place alongside them, but the American has suffered another early exit in a disappointing Asian swing.
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