A revitalized Frances Tiafoe will take a fresh batch of confidence and new coach David Witt into the U.S. Open quarterfinals, where he will battle tour veteran Grigor Dimitrov on Tuesday.
Frances Tiafoe’s season looks like it was contested by two entirely different players–and in a way it has. The American barely managed to win two matches in a row for much of the first half of the year. A heartbreaker of a loss at Wimbledon to Carlos Alcaraz finally prompted the American to make a significant staffing change. He called long-time Venus Williams (and Jessie Pegula) coach David Witt to join his team. Since the change, Tiafoe has only failed to reach the quarters or better at the Montreal Masters.
The American thrilled the audience in Arthur Ashe on Sunday night with an impressive win over the in-form Alexei Popyrin, vanquisher of Novak Djokovic in the third round earlier in the tournament. While it wasn’t a flawless performance from Tiafoe, the current world No. 20 played clean, confident tennis and showed up in the big moments.
By contrast, Grigor Dimitrov has been quietly picking his way through the draw. He has been impressively solid through week one and took advantage of inconsistencies of Andrey Rublev’s game to take out the Russian in five.
Dimitrov has mostly enjoyed success over Tiafoe. The two men have met on four previous occasions which resulted in Dimitrov coming out on top three times, including their most recent encounter at Wimbledon last year.
This quarterfinal is shaping up to be an entertaining event. The New York crowd absolutely loves Tiafoe and it is going to be working hard to give him a boost. Dimitrov for his part is in good form and he has plenty of experience playing in big moments. Look for Dimitrov to try to tempt Tiafoe into going for too much. If the American plays the same patient, mature game he showed against Popyrin, he will find himself in the semifinals for the second time. If he does not, Dimitrov is capable of taking full advantage—and likely will.
Cheryl pick: Dimitrov in 5
Ricky pick: Tiafoe in 4
