His next match against Andrey Rublev – who had taken out British No 1 Cameron Norrie earlier in the day – will be only his second quarter-final from 26 major appearances, which is a poor return for a man of his ability. “I really don’t know what happened,” said Tiafoe in his on-court interview, which happened to be hosted by that same James Blake who beat Nadal here in 2005. The son of immigrants who had fled the civil war in Sierra Leone, he was brought up at the Junior Tennis Champions Centre in Maryland, where his father was the head of maintenance. Tiafoe is one of the great stories of American tennis. Down the home stretch, which saw Tiafoe reel off five of the last six games, he regularly buried the ball in the net. Tiafoe was helped by an indifferent serving performance from Nadal, whose ongoing abdominal issue has restricted how much he can practise that shot.Īpart from one period of high intensity in the middle of the third set, Nadal was generally erratic, particularly on his double-handed backhand. And no male player had beaten anyone ranked as high as Nadal at this tournament since 2005, when James Blake took down the same opponent. On the men’s side, you have to go back to Andy Roddick in 2003 to find the last champion. American successes have been in short supply here since Sloane Stephens won the US Open title in 2017. Some members of the crowd booed Nadal when he eventually returned to the court, in keeping with an afternoon when patriotism gripped this 24,000-seat arena. He needed a seven-minute break after the first set, during which he apparently visited the physio as well as the bathroom. Nadal has been battling his body and his game all tournament.

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