- 5 months ago
It's 2022, and we're watching an American (Frances Tiafoe) take on a legend (Rafael Nadal) in US Open play. The crowd's been kinda shifting back and forth all night because it's been a long time since an American beat anyone -- let alone a legend -- this late in Open play. Before we watch Tiafoe try to win match point, we should learn about his origin story, about Rafa's recent history, and about what this match could mean in the context of modern American tennis. Let's rewind!
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00:00It's September 5th, 2022.
00:03Men's singles at the U.S. Open in Flushing, New York.
00:06We're in the fourth set of a fourth-round match.
00:10Rafael Nadal is serving, and it's match point, but not for Nadal.
00:15The greatest major champion to date is one point away from losing, to an American.
00:21We need to rewind.
00:23This little scoreboard over here represents something that has not happened this year.
00:33Here, at a major event, Rafael Nadal is very close to losing.
00:38In 2021, that would be ordinary.
00:41In 2022, it's the exception.
00:44Let's catch up.
00:45In 2020, Nadal won the French Open, again.
00:49They let him take his mask off to eat the trophy, as is customary.
00:52That was Nadal's 13th Roland-Garros title in 16 years, his 20th major title overall, tying Roger Federer atop the career all-time rankings.
01:02It was also Nadal's third title in his last five Grand Slam events, which is to say the 34-year-old was still very much himself.
01:12A threat to win anywhere, a near lock to win on the clay at Roland-Garros.
01:162021 was different.
01:18Nadal failed to reach a major final, even the French Open, and withdrew from multiple events to recover from multiple injuries.
01:26After pulling out of Wimbledon, Nadal tried to give it a go for the North American hardcourt season, but struggled in D.C., then gave up and called it a year.
01:35Nadal had previously opted to skip the 2020 U.S. Open amid COVID concerns, so his withdrawal from the 2021 event made it two straight absences.
01:44Rafa later revealed that his foot issues were caused by a rare chronic syndrome.
01:50The pain became greater and more persistent than ever before.
01:54And then, as soon as he returned from the foot troubles, he got COVID.
01:58Nadal would not entertain the idea of retirement, but it was in the air.
02:02Rafa's friend and chief rival, Roger Federer, also missed the U.S. Open last year and was openly contemplating the end.
02:11Now, one year later, Federer is unranked and mostly away from the tour.
02:17We may have seen the last of him.
02:19Meanwhile, one year later, Nadal is ranked number three in the world with an unprecedented burst of dominance in his wake.
02:28Yeah, the Spaniard absolutely tore through the year-opening hardcourt swing.
02:34He won the Melbourne Summer Set and then claimed major title number 21 with a huge comeback in the Australian Open final.
02:42Then he won the Mexican Open just for funsies.
02:45Rafa entered March of this year with 15 straight matches won, three straight titles won, and sole ownership of the record for major titles won in a career.
02:54His, his foot thing seemed to be better.
02:58Good lord, man.
03:00That streak did eventually end, but Nadal went on to reclaim his throne of clay.
03:04He outplayed Novak Djokovic in the French Open quarterfinal,
03:08got a bit of a lucky break when Alexander Sverev shredded his ankle in the semifinal,
03:12then he destroyed Kasper Rude to make it 22 career major singles titles.
03:18This man has eaten so much metal.
03:20Rafael Nadal entered Wimbledon this year, 36 years old and halfway to a true calendar year Grand Slam.
03:28And that extremely rare achievement might still be on the table today if not for this.
03:34Since at least March, before major victory number 22, Nadal has been dealing with issues in his abdomen.
03:41He sat out a bunch of the spring to let a cracked rib heal.
03:44Nadal mopped up the early rounds of Wimbledon this year, but as that run progressed,
03:50and especially in a grueling quarterfinal match against Taylor Fritz,
03:54Nadal was clearly playing through intense pain.
03:57Somehow, Nadal managed to win that day, but exams afterward revealed a 7mm abdominal tear,
04:03which, I don't know if you've ever tried to hit a tennis ball, but you would not want to do it with a torn up ab.
04:08Nadal intended to do just that, but had to pull the plug.
04:12Before his semi-final matchup with Nick Kyrgios, Nadal withdrew from Wimbledon.
04:19Once again, Rafa sat out for a month, and he returned this time looking not quite like himself.
04:25Like, yeah, he has made it to the fourth round here at the U.S. Open,
04:28but the road to this match included dropped sets against some far inferior players,
04:34and some pretty grim body language.
04:36In each instance, he figured it out, turned it around, and summoned some fiery resolve to advance
04:42because he's Rafael Nadal and you're not.
04:45Technically, since the Wimbledon withdrawal happened between matches,
04:49Nadal is undefeated in major tournaments this year, 22-0.
04:54It remains to be seen whether he can pull off yet another comeback to keep the streak alive,
04:58or whether the wear and tear will finally catch him today.
05:01We have seen signs of both.
05:04When he started wandering over to take a towel break before his lob had even been returned,
05:09well, that didn't look promising.
05:11That was the third set.
05:14But then, here in the fourth set, we've seen Nadal punctuate an epic point with a deflating winner
05:20and celebrate very emphatically in front of a very engaged crowd.
05:24We've seen him battle back from break point to hold and, once again, go nuts.
05:33Right after that, Nadal secured a break of his own to go up 3-1 in this very set.
05:38Rafa was so bad.
05:40The crowd was electric.
05:43Forget old age, forget a muscle tear,
05:45Rafael Nadal has 22 major titles and 27 abs,
05:50and he will find a way to win.
05:51Maybe not, I guess.
05:56You know, actually, I think it's noteworthy that Nadal is battling an American in America right now,
06:01but has still been getting massive crowd pops on those winners.
06:05It's because he's a legend, yes, but it's also because,
06:08relatedly, Americans just haven't earned much support on this stage of late.
06:14Between Pete Sampras and Andre Agassi,
06:17players from the United States claimed seven United States Open titles between 1990 and 2002.
06:24When those guys finally seemed to be fading,
06:26here came 21-year-old Nebraska-born, Texas-raised Andy Roddick
06:30to keep the 2003 title in the host country.
06:33American tennis had its next flag-bearer.
06:36To ensure our great nation a steady stream of U.S. Open ch-
06:40Oh, no.
06:42Oh, wow.
06:44Andy Roddick was an extremely good tennis player,
06:46whose foremost mistake was being born in the 1980s,
06:50the same decade when some of the greatest men's tennis players of all time were born.
06:55Roddick's peak coincided with that of Federer and Nadal,
07:00and then Novak Djokovic joined the scene as well.
07:04Andy Roddick would not touch a major trophy again.
07:07He is, to date, the last American to win the U.S. Open.
07:12James Blake tried, but he didn't get it done.
07:14Of course, the U.S. is not alone in this men's tennis dishonor,
07:18and at least on the women's side,
07:20we've had the Williams sisters to claim a heap of titles for the host country.
07:23On the men's side, no such luck for anyone, anywhere.
07:27The big three hail from Spain, Switzerland, and Serbia, respectively,
07:32not countries that hold Grand Slam events.
07:35Andy Murray of Great Britain became the exception to the rule,
07:38and arguably made it a big four by winning a couple Wimbledon titles last decade,
07:43but it's been ages since an Australian won the Australian Open,
07:47almost as long since Yannick Noah won a French Open for France,
07:50and yeah, honestly, in that context,
07:53a 19-year drought for Americans at the U.S. Open doesn't even seem that bad.
07:57It's just that that crushing wave of the big three,
08:01a wave that's only just starting to crest,
08:04has left all those host countries searching for their breakthrough candidate to win a title,
08:09our own versions of what Britain got in Andy Murray.
08:12For Americans, no such luck.
08:15You want to know the last American to beat Nadal in any round of any major?
08:20James Blake, here, in 2005.
08:23Rafa was a teenager.
08:24So, on one hand, you can forgive an American crowd for hyping up the doll.
08:29We've just gotten used to front running here because our own guys never hang.
08:32On the other hand, it's a lot of guys these days.
08:35That's a promising development.
08:37Entering this tournament, 13 of the top 100 men in the world were Americans.
08:42This bracket opened with a bunch of them involved.
08:45Four seeded American players,
08:4621 American participants overall when you include wildcards, qualifiers, and injury replacements.
08:53Good field.
08:54And with defending champ Daniil Medvedev losing yesterday,
08:58Federer nearing retirement,
09:00Nadal playing hurt,
09:01and Djokovic insisting he can prevent COVID with cold water and meditation,
09:05this is a very good U.S. Open for someone to make a breakthrough.
09:07But, from 21 nominees for that breakthrough,
09:12the United States is now down to one.
09:16Him.
09:17All the other Americans are toast at this point.
09:20Except him.
09:21Let's talk about Francis Tiafoe.
09:23On that pleasantly long list of ranked American men's tennis players,
09:27Tiafoe stands out.
09:28Multiple American tennis stars are children of immigrants,
09:31but only Tiafoe's family comes from Sierra Leone.
09:34His parents fled the Civil War separately and met in Maryland,
09:38where Francis and his twin brother Franklin were born in 1998.
09:42Multiple American tennis stars grew up around the game of tennis,
09:46and so did Francis,
09:47but not because he's related to a former pro.
09:50His father, Constant, often called Francis Sr.,
09:53worked at the tennis center in College Park,
09:56first on its construction and then full-time on its maintenance.
10:00Francis Sr. lived in a small makeshift apartment on the grounds of the facility,
10:04and for most of each week,
10:06so did his young sons,
10:08sleeping some nights on massage tables.
10:10Francis and Franklin could literally roll out of bed to play tennis,
10:14and watch elite players train in their free time.
10:18Both took to the sport simply because it was there.
10:21Tennis chose them.
10:23Francis in particular became obsessed with the sport,
10:26and began to receive training at the center.
10:28Francis became a fixture and a force on the junior tour,
10:32then turned pro in 2015,
10:35the year he turned 17.
10:37The years since have marked a gradual, steady climb.
10:42Tiafoe didn't burst into serious major contention as a youngster,
10:45like Roddick and some other Americans beforehand.
10:48Tiafoe was likable off the court,
10:50fun to watch on it,
10:52and improving bit by bit,
10:53but entering his 20s,
10:55he hadn't quite broken through.
10:57He won his first ATP title
10:59at the relatively small stakes Del Rey Beach Open in 2018,
11:03and did so as a wild card.
11:06Tiafoe's first deep major run at the 2019 Australian Open
11:09seemed like it might be the start of something,
11:12but he got smoked by Nadal in that quarterfinal,
11:15and failed to repeat that kind of success at any major thereafter.
11:19Tiafoe exited pandemic isolation with a new mindset.
11:23Forget being fun and lovable
11:25while hovering in the middle ground of rankings.
11:27He wanted to be great.
11:29He changed a lot of things about his training and got to work.
11:33Still, Tiafoe has flamed out of this year's first three majors.
11:37His best run was at Wimbledon,
11:39but he failed to reach the quarterfinal
11:41after blowing in two sets to one fourth round lead against David Goffin.
11:45The City Open last month wasn't a major, of course,
11:48but it is Tiafoe's hometown tournament in D.C.,
11:51and it represented a chance to grab a second career title,
11:54and then Tiafoe squandered five match points
11:57and lost to eventual champion Nick Kyrgios in the quarterfinal.
12:01It just hasn't happened yet for Francis Tiafoe,
12:04but now here we are.
12:06We just might be seeing the next level of his capabilities this week.
12:12He's played lots of close sets, including four tie breaks,
12:15but he hadn't dropped a set until today.
12:18Tiafoe is still fun and lovable.
12:20He still practices in basketball jerseys,
12:22still smiles more than most.
12:25Francis shuffles around the court almost as if he's limping.
12:28He's got an unusual serve and a kind of slappy forehand.
12:31He's fun.
12:32He has also been an absolute killer.
12:36Almost nobody has his lower body strength
12:39or his ability to generate pace on the move and at impossible angles.
12:44Here's an example of the above.
12:46Almost nobody can turn this body position into a winner.
12:52And then Francis finished that third set with a no-doubt-about-it ace.
12:56Tiafoe's got more winners and more aces than his legendary opponent
13:02and has kept his errors in check.
13:04But it's not just power.
13:06It's persistence.
13:08Tiafoe got broken early in this fourth set,
13:10but didn't get in his head and start flailing.
13:13And it's touch and timing,
13:15like this disgusting approach drop shot in the middle of this set,
13:19which set up the break point Francis needed to get here.
13:22Nadal has been much likelier than Tiafoe to commit a silly unforced error
13:27like this one at a critical moment.
13:29And of course, it's the angles.
13:31It always is with this guy.
13:33Mere seconds ago, Tiafoe created his first match point
13:36by taking a wide 117 mile per hour Nadal serve
13:40and just flicking it out of reach like it was nothing.
13:43Check the crowd reaction on that one, by the way.
13:45You couldn't blame these fans for cheering on Nadal at times,
13:49but Tiafoe has fully won them over.
13:51They can feel it.
13:53Rafael Nadal has had an incredible bounce back year
13:56and he's managed to slog through this tournament despite his injury.
14:00But this appears to be the moment for an American man
14:03to break through at the U.S. Open.
14:05And not just any American, but Francis Tiafoe,
14:08whose background and gradual rise to prominence are one of a kind.
14:12Let's see if Francis can finish the job of taking down a Titan.
14:18Welcome to a moment in history.
14:20Feel it, kid.
14:44Thank you so much for watching this episode of Rewinder.
14:56Check out more stuff like this on Patreon,
14:59and otherwise I'll see you on the internet.
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