Frances Tiafoe Reaches US Open Semifinals After Thrilling Comeback
Frances Tiafoe had every right to roar. Instead, he wrapped Alex Michelsen in a long hug as his friend wept into his shoulder.
On a hot, heavy night at Arthur Ashe Stadium, the 11th seed dragged himself back from the brink, overturning a two-set deficit and a slew of lost chances to beat Michelsen 5-7, 3-6, 7-5, 6-3, 7-6(10-6) and reach the US Open semifinals for the third time.
It took four hours and 38 minutes. It took nerve, stubbornness, and a refusal to accept that this might be Michelsen’s night instead.
It also took a final, fearless swing.
With match point on his racket in the deciding tiebreak, Tiafoe drilled a forehand passing shot down the line, a clean strike that detonated the noise inside Ashe. He spun away, arms spread, ready to let the moment wash over him.
Then he saw Michelsen.
The celebration stopped mid-stride. Tiafoe crossed the court and pulled the 22-year-old into an embrace.
“As soon as I hugged him I saw he was crying already,” Tiafoe told ESPN later. “I was like ‘Man I know. I’ve been there twice, lost in five.’ … He’s young and he hasn’t been there.”
This was Michelsen’s first trip beyond the second round at his home slam, a breakout run from the unseeded world No. 46 who had previously peaked at the fourth round of the 2025 Australian Open. He had come within a handful of points of making it even more historic.
- He led by two sets.
- He led by a break in the third.
- He served for the match at 5-4.
At that stage, Tiafoe looked drained of the swagger that had carried him through the early rounds. His timing had deserted him, his shot selection wavered, and Michelsen — loose-shouldered, unfazed — kept cracking serves and flattening forehands.
Then the match flipped.
Tiafoe clawed back from 4-5 down in the third and strung together seven straight games, stealing the set 7-5 and racing to a commanding position in the fourth. The crowd, restless and anxious, sensed the shift and roared him forward. Every forehand winner, every defensive scramble, fed into the momentum.
“I slowly, slowly started getting my rhythm there,” Tiafoe said. The rhythm came just in time.
Michelsen, though, refused to fold. Not on Ashe. Not in his first real taste of the sport’s biggest stage.
He surged again in the fifth, sprinting out to a 3-0 lead and silencing the noise that had started to build for Tiafoe. The older American looked in trouble once more, his energy dipping, his opponent swinging free.
The pressure finally told — but on Michelsen.
Tiafoe dug in, shortened the points where he could, and leaned on the crowd when he couldn’t. He reeled the deficit back, game by game, until the fifth set bled into a 10-point tiebreak, the kind of brutal, compressed drama that leaves no room to hide.
Michelsen’s numbers told the story of his audacious approach: 21 aces, 55 winners, and a willingness to take the ball on early, even against one of the game’s best counter-punchers. They also told the story of his undoing. Sixty-one unforced errors in a marathon match at Ashe is a heavy bill to pay.
Tiafoe, steadier and more seasoned in these deep-water moments, made him pay at the end.
“He’s a hell of a player. I mean, he easily could have won today,” Tiafoe said, acknowledging just how close he came to a third straight-set exit.
Michelsen had spoken after his fourth-round win about improving, about trying to change things in his game. He got both: a higher level and a brutal lesson in closing on the biggest court in American tennis. Yet he walked away with something else too — the respect of the stadium he’d just left in near silence.
Michelsen left Ashe with a towel draped over his head, his face hidden, his arm raised to acknowledge the crowd that had watched him swing without fear. The ovation followed him up the tunnel.
“He’s also an unbelievable guy and a very good friend of mine,” Michelsen had said of Tiafoe earlier in the tournament. The feeling was clearly mutual.
“We’re super tight. We’ve always had a great relationship. We laugh and joke all the time. He’s one of my good buddies on tour,” Tiafoe said. “I know how much that hurts. I know how much he wanted that today. It’s something that you dream about.
“I just told him, ‘You’re going to be here so many more times, man. And I’m going to be in a rocking chair when you do.’”
For now, Tiafoe is not in a rocking chair. He is back in the US Open semifinals, alive again after a match that seemed lost more than once, waiting for either eighth seed Ben Shelton or defending champion Carlos Alcaraz.
He has his rhythm back. He has his escape.
And he knows a younger friend is coming hard in the rearview mirror.
