Another American To Second Week At US Open: Tiafoe Handles Difficult Mannarino Challenge
Frances Tiafoe will continue in the second week of the US Open after he bested Adrian Mannarino in the 3rd round.
Tiafoe made it to the semi-final last year and famously declared that he would 'win the damn thing one day.' His whole season has basically been all about the US Open, and while he played spectacularly at times this season, he's also had rather bad outings.
It will always be the case with him because he will never be this beacon of consistency. It's just a combination of many different things that contribute to that. Even this match wasn't all that consistent, though he did prove better in the end.
The opening set went to Mannarino, who technically had no business winning that set. He did serve well and played well but was also quite lucky. Tiafoe gave him only one break point, and he converted it while saving all five he faced on his own serve.
Things changed quite a bit in the second set as Tiafoe was far more impressive posting 14 winners and only 2 unforced errors. That was similar to what we saw him during his US Open run last year. The 3rd set was another solid set from Tiafoe though he didn't press much in that one.
Mannarino tried to be aggressive, but it backfired badly with 13 unforced errors. The 4th, though, was pretty interesting. It was probably the closest, as neither was noticeably better. Tiafoe struggled with his serve, which was why he got broken twice.
He was up 2-1 but then fell behind 2-4, only to make it 4-4 once again. Eventually, we ended up in a tiebreak, and while Mannarino started well, Tiafoe turned it around. The final score was 4-6 6-2 6-3 7-6(6) for the American, who moves on to the second week, following fellow compatriot Ben Shelton.
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