NEW YORK — Frances Tiafoe ended Rafael Nadal‘s 22-match winning streak at Grand Slam tournaments by beating the 22-time major champion 6-4, 4-6, 6-4, 6-3 in the US Open’s fourth round on Monday.
Tiafoe buried his head in his hands and cried on the court after he shook hands with Nadal. He sat on the bench and buried his head in a towel as Nadal walked off and waved to the crowd.
The 24-year-old Tiafoe is the youngest American man to reach the quarterfinals at the US Open since Andy Roddick in 2006. It’s the second major quarterfinal of his career.
“I don’t even know what to say right now. I’m beyond happy. I can’t believe it,” said Tiafoe, who faces No. 9 seed Andrey Rublev next. “He’s one of the greatest of all time. I played unbelievable tennis today, but I don’t even know what happened.”
Here’s what happened: Tiafoe served better than No. 2 seed Nadal. More surprisingly, he returned better, too. And he kept his cool, remained in the moment and never let the stakes or the opponent get to him.
Nadal had won both of their previous matches, and every set they played, too. He was 31-2 in majors against Americans entering Monday’s match and had won 27 straight since losing to James Blake in 2005.
“Well done for him,” Nadal said. “He was better than me.”
This surprise came a day after one of Tiafoe’s pals, Nick Kyrgios, eliminated No. 1 seed and defending champion Daniil Medvedev.
Nadal won the Australian Open in January and the French Open in June. Then he made it to the semifinals at Wimbledon in July before withdrawing from that tournament because of a torn abdominal muscle; that does not go into the books as a loss, because he pulled out before the match.
The 36-year-old from Spain competed only once in the 1 1/2 months between leaving the All England Club and arriving in New York while recovering from that injury. His play has not been up to his usual standards at the US Open, which he has won four times, particularly his serve.
Nadal tweaked his service motion, tossing the ball lower than he normally does so as not to put as much strain on his midsection while reaching with his racket. There were plenty of signs Monday that his serve is just not in tip-top shape: nine double-faults, a first-serve percentage hovering around 50%, five breaks by Tiafoe.
The next-to-last break came for a 4-3 edge in the fourth set, when Nadal put a backhand into the net, and Tiafoe skipped backward toward the sideline for the ensuing changeover, his fist raised. Fifteen minutes later, Tiafoe broke again, and it was over.
There were signs of trouble for Nadal earlier in the tournament. He lost the first set of his first-round match. Did the same in the second round, when he also accidentally cut the bridge of his nose and made himself dizzy when the edge of his racket frame bounced off the court and caught him in the face on a backhand follow-through.
Marin Cilic is now the last remaining major champion left in the men’s draw. If he loses to the heavily favored Carlos Alcaraz on Monday night, it will be only the third time in the Open Era (1968) that a men’s major tournament has a quarterfinal lineup without an ex-champion, according to ESPN Stats & Information research.
This is also just the second major since the start of 2005 without any member of the “Big 3” of Roger Federer, Novak Djokovic and Nadal in the quarterfinals. The other was the 2020 French Open — Federer and Nadal didn’t play, and Djokovic was defaulted against Pablo Carreño Busta in the Round of 16.
Earlier Monday, Rublev reached his sixth Grand Slam quarterfinal by beating No. 7 Cam Norrie 6-4, 6-4, 6-4. Rublev is into his third quarterfinal at Flushing Meadows; he is 0-2 at that stage in New York — and 0-5 at all majors.
The Associated Press contributed to this story.