Frances Tiafoe outduels Ben Shelton in US Open top-20 clash

NEW YORK — Frances Tiafoe solved Ben Shelton’s big serve and played brilliantly at the net to win their all-American rematch at the US Open 4-6, 7-5, 6-7 (5), 6-4, 6-3 on Friday and get back to the fourth round at Flushing Meadows for the fifth consecutive year.

A year ago in New York, Tiafoe was eliminated by Shelton in four sets in the quarterfinals. The year before that, Tiafoe, who loves the tournament’s spotlight and its electricity, defeated Rafael Nadal on the way to the US Open semifinals, the best Grand Slam showing of his career.

Tiafoe hasn’t always excelled at five-setters: He was just 6-13 in matches that went the distance before Friday. Shelton was 6-2. But none of that mattered on this occasion. After getting past Shelton in a match that lasted 4 hours, 3 minutes, Tiafoe spread his arms wide and looked around at the thousands cheering in Arthur Ashe Stadium. The two pals then met at the net for a hug and a lengthy chat.

“I’ve got to say, Ben’s an incredible player, man,” Tiafoe told spectators during a postmatch interview. “He’s an incredible player. He really is. He goes for all kind of shots. He’s got no care in the world. It’s really annoying. … He’s really talented. He can come up with great shots. So can I. It’s highlight after highlight. I hope you guys enjoyed the show.”

Said Shelton: “I thought he played lights-out today … you’ve got to be happy for a guy and congratulate — especially a guy like him when he’s playing the way he’s playing. I think that it’s important to show that you can be happy for a guy when they beat you.

“Obviously there are some things I want to do better. I’m a competitor. I always want to win. But, you know, I’ve taken a few things from him in the past year, and I thought that he’s always handled it well. … I told him keep serving like that, keep returning like that, and see where this thing goes.” 

Up next for Tiafoe could be 24-time Grand Slam champion Novak Djokovic. Djokovic, the defending champ at Flushing Meadows, played No. 28 Alexei Popyrin in the third round Friday night.

Many people were figuring Shelton vs. Tiafoe would be at night, but instead it was in the afternoon, and began in front of a sparse crowd because the stands emptied at the conclusion of the previous encounter, 2023 champion Coco Gauff’s victory over Elina Svitolina.

“All my friends and close ones [were] saying, ‘How is he not playing at night? I don’t know how I’m going to get there.’ Da, da, da. Blah, blah, blah. I was like, ‘Fact of the matter is, we’re not playing at night. It doesn’t really matter. I just want to win,'” Tiafoe said. 

“It would have been cool at night,” he added. “Look, it was epic during the day. I think everyone loved it.”

Shelton echoed that sentiment. 

“It didn’t feel like a third-round match. Felt like one of those that you play late in the two weeks,” he said, before adding with a smile, “Should have been a night match, but it is what it is. But yeah, a great atmosphere.” 

Shelton, a 21-year-old from Georgia, was seeded 13th. Tiafoe, a 26-year-old from Maryland, is 20th. They’re both part of a group of five Americans in the top 20 of the ATP rankings, making some think the country’s long wait for a men’s champion at a major could end soon. Andy Roddick’s 2003 US Open trophy was the most recent Slam title for a man from the United States.

The highest-ranked U.S. man at the moment, No. 12 Taylor Fritz, moved on with a 6-3, 6-4, 6-2 win against Francisco Comesana and now will take on three-time Slam finalist Casper Ruud, who beat  Juncheng Shang in five sets after dropping the first two.

Fritz became the first American man to make the round of 16 at all four majors in a year since Andre Agassi in 2003.

“It’s a pretty cool thing for me to do, because just last year I was really struggling with Grand Slam results,” Fritz said. “Obviously making quarterfinals here was huge, but … my [other] Slam performances were bad, so it’s nice to do a lot better at something I put a lot of emphasis on, which was performing … at the biggest tournaments.”

Yet another American, Brandon Nakashima, who is currently ranked No. 50, advanced by eliminating Wimbledon semifinalist Lorenzo Musetti 6-2, 3-6, 6-3, 7-6 (4).

Nakashima, who also upset 15th seed Holger Rune in the first round, will face the winner of the night clash between  Tomas Martin Etcheverry and Alexander Zverev on Louis Armstrong.

One men’s fourth-round matchup established Friday was No. 6 Andrey Rublev vs. No. 9 Grigor Dimitrov.

Shelton, a left-hander, hadn’t lost serve even once in two wins this week before Friday and managed to produce 23 aces, reaching 143 mph, the fastest of the tournament. But Tiafoe accumulated a whopping 21 break points — the most by any opponent against Shelton — and converted five. The last made it 3-1 in the fifth set.

The other key? Tiafoe kept charging forward, and he kept putting away volleys. He won 35 of 48 points when he made it to the net. And, as usual, Tiafoe played to the fans, breaking out his “Salt Bae” celebration after one point.

“I thought I made a lot of returns, made him play a lot. I think that’s something I have really improved on since I’ve hired David Witt, focusing a lot on that,” Tiafoe said. “That paid a lot of dividends. I wished I served better throughout the match, but I served really well at the end, and that’s kind of what counts. 

“It was definitely a tough match. But I think … the level was a lot higher this year than we played last year throughout the five sets.” 

Tiafoe had a 15-15 record at the tour level this season through Wimbledon, but has won 12 of his past 16 matches since bringing on Witt, Venus Williams’ coach for 11 years, in July at Atlanta.

And after starting the season 0-4 against ATP top-20 players through Wimbledon, he has now won five of his past six matches against the top 20, with the lone loss coming against No. 1  Jannik Sinner in the Cincinnati final.

ESPN Stats & Information, The Associated Press and Reuters contributed to this report.