What REALLY Happened to Frances Tiafoe in that US Open Semifinal…

Intro during his press conference following the US Open semi-final Francis tiao said that he believed he was the better player compared to Taylor Fritz the actual winner when tfu took a two set to one lead it seemed as though he was on the verge of making history as the first African-American man's US Open finalist since Arthur Ash in 1972 however at the end of the fourth set tfo's performance drastically declined while it appeared that his physical condition was the obvious issue tiao later revealed that there was more to the story St hey my name is Christian bass Knight and welcome to Christian's Court where I cover tennis from all angles if you have not yet already make sure you subscribe and click that notification Bell so you're notified whenever I post more edj tennis content like this Taylor first defeated Francis TFO 4675 466 461 to become the first American male slam singles finalist since Andy rodic reached the womon championship in 2009 I was kind of Frances Tiafoe vs Taylor Fritz match analysis surprised that Francis even won the first set especially since he went down early and he trailed love three going down the early break Nei other guy really played that great at that point including Fritz himself despite him holding the advantage as he really was aided by Tio coming out the flatter of the two but once Francis settled in a little bit more it became clear that he was the better player for the first half of the match at least Fritz's serving was not the same that we've seen it from him thus far in this tournament and toi took advantage as he broke twice to allow four consecutive games to go up the break at 4-3 t maintained that break lead for the remainder of the opening set but and he not only served better than Taylor did but Francis was much stronger from the ground and that had not even been the case in their previous seven six or seven matchups Fritz's Strokes didn't have that same oomph in them that we've seen from him once again in rounds prior and a lot of his shots landed really short in the court and tiao was the aggressor here it's also worth noting that TFO had kind of the overwhelming cross support which it's not surprised that most or many of the fans cheered for him but to me at least it seemed like 70% of Arthur Ash crowd was pulling or were pulling for tifo some of that I think has to do with him starting out slower and the crowd pulling for him to kind of make this more of a match and make the first set more competitive which he definitely did than the other side of it too TFO is technically the bigger star of the two I feel like a lot more celebrities and influencers were out there and thus they knew more about Francis and his story and so they were pulling for him in the second set Taylor was Big Dog ESP on his serve only losing one single service Point Francis held his own too until that 56 game where the first serve really eluded him and Taylor took complete Advantage stepping up and going on the offensive on the 20th seed whenever he had that second serve look and that led to a break at love what's interesting is that Taylor only improved his first Sur percentage by three point percentage points in that second set compared to the first set but he still only dropped that one point behind his serve for one he was more solid from the ground round behind that serve and he did a much better job of spreading the court and really getting Tao on the move and out of position now francis's returning definitely could have stood to improve in that second set I thought he let Taylor off the hook too many times even though TFO held relatively comfortably I thought that giving Taylor those love holds consistently and not making him work nearly hard at all and his service game surely gave the 12 seed some added confidence Francis though immediately did a better job of Landing more returns in the opening game of the third set breaking Fritz right off the bat Tio only made 44% of his first serves in but he won 91% of four serve points as well as 71% of second serve points in set number three it was similar to the first set in terms of how the point points were going Taylor became a little bit more airon in that third set while TFO had that fine balance and blend of being patiently aggressive which is why he ended up with five fewer unforced errs compared to Taylor Francis also started going a little bit more by back behind Taylor using that backand up the line which I thought was a great Play Even though Francis won the third set I once again felt that Francis let Taylor off the hook he has some slight openings to break for a second time in that third set namely at 35 where he pushed Fritz to 30 all but he made some kind of sloppy mistakes to let Taylor Escape I think that Breck could have been crucial as it would have given Francis The Edge and him serving first to start off this the fourth set now going into that fourth set at one all I I believe that was a huge Mis chance for Francis to break he got to 30 all but those initial two points for lost were Mis Returns on a second serve again nobody is perfect you're not going to make every single second serve return but I feel like nonetheless that was a big missed opportunity to all was an even bigger Mis chance for tifo as he missed a very makeable return at love 15 before making a backand unforced air up 15:30 then at 30 all he shanked a forehand while having on the ropes and then Fritz sealed the game with an UNR returnable serve still Francis was doing very well in his serve and holding relatively comfortably and he still showed that he was the better player of the two and it felt like it was really only a matter of time until he would break and get that first strike but at 4545 that's when all the wheels for talo fell off and we really saw a complete collapse from Big foe he double faed twice from 4015 up and then he shanked to forehand before kind of throwing away the set with a very poor drop shot that was the match right there to be honest because that took all the wind out of francis's sales and it contributed to him being broken right off the bat twice right off the bat to open out the fifth set he did get one break back but that was shortlived as he surrendered it right back the following game to send Fritz through to the final Tio spent three hours longer on court compared to Taylor even heading into the semi-final so it makes sense that he might have been struggling a bit more physically in the latter stages of the match Francis said himself though that he was was actually cramping a bit at that point at that 4 five point in the fourth set likely due to the nerves of him coming Why Big Foe had the letdown so close to making the final yet again 5 four I'm 45 go double double um and I'm getting broken there but I kind of felt there out of nowhere just you know just weird cramps out of nowhere when I felt fine it wasn't even really warm no humid tonight um again I can think the moment definitely got a I got ahead of my myself and something I'm definitely going to learn from but you know I promise probably not going to happen to me again in addition to the weight of the occasion and francis's Court time I think that the six to1 head-to-head Edge and Fritz's favor played a role here mentally Fritz likely had that mental edge of beating Francis six times and having that belief of you know even though I'm down and out or not really down and out but even though I'm down in this match I've beaten Francis six times in a row and I can definitely do it again and meanwhile I felt like he was a much bigger hump for TFO to overcome their highkey and I question whether Francis truly truly believed in his core and his mind that he could beat Taylor even though he was playing better also I think Fritz has the confidence or had the confidence from achieving bigger things as far as winning 1,000 title and winning a 500 mind d francis's three titles that he's earned thus far were all 250s and I think that that would have been a much bigger step up from him and making a slam final as opposed to Taylor and then maybe perhaps the biggest factor is that tifo was playing for more history than Fritz was there is added pressure for big fo as a black man in the breakpoint docu series him and his girlfriend kind of talked about the pressure that he feels trying to carry the weight of there being such a void of not only black players but especially black men in tennis Arthur Ash of course I think he was he still is the last man black man African-American man I mean to win a grand slam and then Francis was bidding to become the first black man in 28 years since malavi Washington made the woman in finals to make a grand slam final period that is a lot of weight to carry and Venus and Serena they were able to kind of do it together they kind of able to share that weight coko go of course she became a grand slam champion and SLO Stevens did as well but those two their TRS came when Venus and Serena were still relatively active or they weren't too far removed from winning slams themselves like I once again Francis TFO the gap between the last black African-American man to win a slam in him was much larger and like Billy Jean King said pressure is a privilege and TFO knows this but it's still a lot of pressure still to overcome trying to be such a Trailblazer for you know so many different types of people now the big question for me at least remains will tiao be in this position again and can he get over that hump and not only make a final but go all the way and win a major I think that he can I feel like he showed us in this tournament that he has the game and then plus two he's really he's always had the game but the biggest obstacle for tiao I think was maintaining the focus and he showed us that he has the focus he has the mentality and it's really something we've never seen from him that thus far being able to stay in there point in and point out we really never saw a notable letup from tifo the only let up we saw from him was really physically and then the pressure-wise but he remained so focused and he was on a mission and unfortunately he didn't go all the way and accomplish that mission fully but regardless he should be so proud of how he played I think that though also there needs to be a little bit of tweaks in his game that he and David wh need to hit especially on like improving that return that return notably is the biggest thing or biggest Improvement I think Tao needs to make he also needs to bring that same level of focus and intensity to all tournaments just outside of the US Open and really just outside of the US tournaments in general tifo in his press conference after beating GG de M he said that it's really hard for him to get up for the other tournaments as he does for the US Open and it's made sense to why he's made the quarterfinals or better in his last four us opens but he's got to bring that same type of energy to the other tournaments even though when he might not have the crowd support that separates the the good players from the great players and then from the from the Grand Slam champions I feel like I also think TFO needs to kind of crawl before he walks and win a 500 or higher title I think that will instill in him greater belief Fritz vs Sinner final preview to where he can overcome the big pressure moments like we saw yesterday against Fritz now looking ahead to Sunday's final between Taylor and yanic Center Center will be the huge favorite here and I actually was going to be edrey and have Fritz pull off the upset which I know sounds crazy you know he has beaten center before he tested him a lot in their last meeting which was in the Indian Wells quarterfinal from last year but then I had to remember that even though the last meeting was last year and Fritz did well to test him that was before the yanic center 2.0 kicked in and though the Italian isn't really playing his best tennis at the moment for se he has such an aura and self-belief about him that really gets him out of trouble in the tight moments we've seen it throughout the entire tournament also after rewatching the tiao fritz match for a second time I feel like although Taylor definitely improved in the end as far as his serving and overall ground strokes go I don't think that yanuk will let him tailor off the hook as much as Francis did with some of those mised Returns the crowd can be an important factor in this match but I do not think that Taylor will really maximize that aspect and take advantage of that as he really could have it's really just not his personality to get the crowd engaged we saw even in the TFO match he did the most he did was a big fist and that was really just kind of to himself and to his box he doesn't he's not the type of player to really get the crowd you know be like this like Francis would or Koko would really he should step out of his comfort zone and do more of that but I still doubt that he will he's just not in his his Forte both men have had impressive rad to the final yanuk he got edgy wins over another American Tommy Paul before beating din Mev and of course Jack Draper he beat Draper in straight sets in a crazy match and then Fritz beat three grand Stam finalist in rude Zev and bartini before taking down tifo but I just think this matchup simply favors Yanik Yanik simply does mostly everything a bit better than Taylor he is a better mover than Fritz he is better from the ground more solid from the ground and he's the better voler the one that I might give Fritz is his serve and even that isn't much of an edge that's because not only is Taylor his serving was a little bit spotty and that semi-final against TFO but Center is an excellent returner Fritz has to have a Flawless serving day and be on point whenever he has a just a sliver of an opening here he's really shown us so much fight and heart not only in this tournament but his entire career but I don't know if Taylor can pull that off in the biggest match of his career in his life and trying to finally end the talks of who's going to be the next American man to win a slam it's going on it's 21 years since Andy rodic lifted the trophy here that's going to be a lot of pressure on him too I definitely think that he can do it he can be the one to end the title drought and I think he has the best shot of doing it of course but I don't think it will happen on Sunday and thus I will have yannik taking this one in four sets do you think that Francis will compete at another slam semi-final and perhaps go further or was this his last big missed opportunity also can frit do the impossible and upset number one Center leave your thoughts on the comments below and make sure you subscribe and click the notification Bell so you're notified whenever I post my great US Open wrapup recap video thank you so much for watching and for your support and I'll see yall next time here on Christian Court