Tennis: Tiafoe needs five sets to see off Damm Jr.

A seed in trouble

Frances Tiafoe won the first set and then lost the next two. The 11th seed was one set from a first-round exit at the US Open before he beat Martin Damm Jr. 6-4, 4-6, 3-6, 6-3, 6-4 in the last of the Monday night matches.

Five-set openers are not the way a seeded player wants to start a fortnight in New York. The arithmetic is unforgiving: time spent on court in round one has a habit of surfacing again in round three, and the men’s draw in Flushing Meadows offers no soft landing after the opening week begins.

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The recovery

The fourth set is where the match turned back. Tiafoe took it 6-3, then held his nerve through a tight fifth to close it 6-4. He is one of the American men still standing after a first round that also carried Ben Shelton through in four sets and ended Novak Djokovic’s tournament on Sunday.

Felix Auger-Aliassime also came through during the same session, keeping the top half of the draw largely intact behind Carlos Alcaraz.

What Monday gave Tiafoe was a win and very little else. The second round arrives quickly.

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