Three sets, and one of them nearly got away
Frances Tiafoe beat Japanese qualifier Rei Sakamoto 6-3, 7-6(2), 7-5 on Wednesday to reach the third round of the US Open, a result that reads more comfortably than the middle hour of it felt.
Tiafoe broke in the opening game of the match and held from there to take the first set. The second looked like going the same way until he served consecutive double faults at the wrong moment. Sakamoto found something, lifted his level and forced a tiebreak.
That was as far as the resistance went. Tiafoe won four of the first five points in the breaker and moved two sets clear.
Try it for $0.99.
The qualifier who beat his idol to get here
Sakamoto reached the main draw by beating Kei Nishikori, a former US Open finalist and the player he grew up idolising. On Louis Armstrong Stadium he served like someone who belonged, striking 18 aces.
He also hit 40 unforced errors. That is the sentence that explains the scoreline. Against a top-15 player who defends as well as Tiafoe does, free points from the serve stop mattering once the rallies start going the other way.
A quicker afternoon than the last one
Tiafoe needed five sets to get out of his opening match, so closing this one in three carried a practical value beyond the scoreboard. The world number 12 has reached the semi-finals at Flushing Meadows twice, and both of those runs were built on staying fresh through the first week rather than surviving it.
The crowd on Armstrong helped. Tiafoe has always fed off it, and he leaned on the noise again through the tighter passages of the second and third sets, where Sakamoto kept the scoreline close without ever threatening to turn it.
Kamil Majchrzak or Valentin Vacherot is next. Neither will serve at Sakamoto’s speed, and neither is likely to gift Tiafoe 40 errors either.
Discover the rest of our tennis news on MathODDS!
in your pocket.
Real-time notifications & alerts
Leave a Reply