{"id":67610,"date":"2026-09-07T05:46:11","date_gmt":"2026-09-07T05:46:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/tennis\/67610\/"},"modified":"2026-09-07T05:46:11","modified_gmt":"2026-09-07T05:46:11","slug":"shelton-tiafoe-michelsen-win-at-us-open-as-american-men-aim-to-end-drought","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/tennis\/67610\/","title":{"rendered":"Shelton, Tiafoe, Michelsen win at US Open as American men aim to end drought"},"content":{"rendered":"

NEW YORK (AP) \u2014 Frances Tiafoe and Alex Michelsen will meet in the U.S. Open<\/a> quarterfinals. Ben Shelton is there as well, set to face defending champion Carlos Alcaraz<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The American men are making a real run at ending their lengthy Grand Slam drought.<\/p>\n

The U.S. hasn\u2019t had a men\u2019s major champion since Andy Roddick won in Flushing Meadows in 2003, and there haven\u2019t even been many great opportunities in the more than two decades since. <\/p>\n

But backed by the home crowd and in good form, the Americans had five players in the final 16 of a major for the first time since 1995 and will be a real threat in the second week of the final Grand Slam tournament of the season.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe play so much outside of the States obviously, a lot of time in Europe,\u201d Tiafoe said Sunday. \u201cThis sport\u2019s so international, so to be able to play in front of friends, family, loved ones, is amazing. They don\u2019t get to see you much, so you want to put on a show.\u201d<\/p>\n

The No. 11 seed beat 2021 champion Daniil Medvedev 7-6 (1), 6-4, 7-6 (6) to move within a victory of his third appearance in the U.S. Open semifinals. To get there he\u2019ll have to beat Michelsen, who has been the dominant player in this year\u2019s tournament.<\/p>\n

The 22-year-old from California beat No. 27 Tomas Etcheverry 7-6 (6), 6-4, 6-4 and is the only man who has yet to drop a set in the tournament. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve been working really hard to get to this point and I\u2019m really happy but not super surprised because of all the work I put in my whole life,\u201d Michelsen said after reaching his first Grand Slam quarterfinal.<\/p>\n

The winner of his match against Tiafoe will face No. 2-seeded Alcaraz or No. 8 Shelton, who beat Stefanos Tsitsipas 6-2, 6-3, 6-4 on Sunday in his best performance of the tournament. Shelton predicted \u201cfireworks\u201d in the matchup with the two-time champion. <\/p>\n

\u201cI think it will be a great match. I\u2019m excited for the battle,\u201d Shelton said. \u201cNever played him here in New York, and obviously in the position that I want to be in.\u201d<\/p>\n

All four men\u2019s matches Sunday had a U.S. player in it, and the Americans grabbed three of them. Only Alcaraz was able to turn back a player from the host country, beating No. 20 seed Tommy Paul in the afternoon.<\/p>\n

The Americans still had a chance to get one more quarterfinalist Monday when No. 14 seed Learner Tien faces Karen Khachanov. <\/p>\n

The closest the Americans came to ending the drought was two years ago at the U.S. Open, when Taylor Fritz beat Tiafoe<\/a> in the first all-American Grand Slam semifinal since 2005 to become the first American man in a major final since Roddick in 2009. Jannik Sinner beat Fritz in straight sets for the title.<\/p>\n

The Americans had eight players in the round of 16 in the 1995 U.S. Open, advancing three to the semifinals. Pete Sampras beat Jim Courier in the semis and then No. 1 Andre Agassi in the final.<\/p>\n

The U.S. expected to have multiple men\u2019s title contenders in that era, but some of the men have grown tired now of the annual discussion of the drought. Meanwhile, Coco Gauff has collected two trophies in recent years and Jessica Pegula has reached No. 3 in the world.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere have been a really consistent chunk of players, Jess, Coco, you know, have been at the top and inside the top five for the last I don\u2019t know how many years,\u201d Taylor Townsend said after losing to women\u2019s No. 1 Aryna Sabalenka on Sunday. \u201cBen, Frances, Tommy, Taylor, it\u2019s just such a great group of men as well.\u201d<\/p>\n

___<\/p>\n

See AP\u2019s full tennis coverage here<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"NEW YORK (AP) \u2014 Frances Tiafoe and Alex Michelsen will meet in the U.S. Open quarterfinals. Ben Shelton…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":67611,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[1677,119,843,217,419,190,271,185,18408,23445,1021,114,11422,1301,1550,219,183,1821,1742,695,8782,25888,5991,84,2034,1116,50,2585,221,859,28,16750,452,1646,463],"class_list":["post-67610","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-us-open","tag-alex-michelsen","tag-andre-agassi","tag-andy-roddick","tag-aryna-sabalenka","tag-ben-shelton","tag-california","tag-carlos-alcaraz","tag-coco-gauff","tag-connecticut","tag-ct-state-wire","tag-daniil-medvedev","tag-europe","tag-fl-state-wire","tag-florida","tag-frances-tiafoe","tag-jannik-sinner","tag-jessica-pegula","tag-jim-courier","tag-karen-khachanov","tag-learner-tien","tag-maryland","tag-md-state-wire","tag-new-jersey","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-pete-sampras","tag-sports","tag-stefanos-tsitsipas","tag-taylor-fritz","tag-taylor-townsend","tag-tennis","tag-tomas-etcheverry","tag-tommy-paul","tag-u-s-open-tennis-championships","tag-us-open"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/67610","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=67610"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/67610\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/67611"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=67610"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=67610"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=67610"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}