Frances Tiafoe moved one step closer to Grand Slam glory on home turf with a three-set win over Russia's Andrey Rublev in Wednesday's US Open quarter-final bout.
Prior to the 2022 tournament at Flushing Meadows, Tiafoe's best finish at a major event was reaching the quarter-finals of the 2019 Australian Open, but the American dug deep to battle past Rublev.
Opportunities for breaks were few and far between in the first two sets, with neither man able to crack the other's serve, but Tiafoe edged both of the tie-breaks - including a 7-0 success in the second.
Not until the seventh game of the third set would Tiafoe finally earn the vital break, and Rublev was visibly fighting to keep his emotions in check as the prospect of a sixth Grand Slam quarter-final exit became ever more real.
Rublev's hopes of staging a dramatic comeback slimmed as Tiafoe held to move one game away from the match, and the 24-year-old's 18th ace of the day sealed a 7-6[3] 7-6[0] 6-4 win.
Tiafoe has now become the first American man in 16 years to reach the semi-finals of the US Open in singles competition since Andy Roddick's final-four appearance in 2006, and he has only dropped one set in the tournament so far, which came in his defeat of Rafael Nadal.
The American will now meet Jannik Sinner or Carlos Alcaraz for a place in the final, where either Casper Ruud or Karen Khachanov will be waiting.
Ben Knapton
