It’s a joke that Tiafoe may no longer find amusing in light of the way melted away after Fritz won a 31-shot exchange at 3-all in the fourth set. By the time Fritz won that one and logged two service breaks in the fifth, ESPN’s John McEnroe said of Tiafoe, “He’s hit some kind of a wall. This is not the same guy who was out there in the first two hours. Something is horribly wrong.”
That something may have been an all-around lack of stamina. Tiafoe has acknowledged that he had a lot of trouble finding his zeal for competition after losing here in last year’s quarterfinal to rising star and compatriot, Ben Shelton. Going into the North American hard court season, Tiafoe had a losing record 15-16. He felt that treading water for so long hurt him. “It [this loss] could be a testament to how many (best-of-five) matches I’ve played in a short time,” he said. “And I haven’t played that many matches all year like that.”
Tiafoe will take important lessons from this. The way he ran out of gas is also a reminder of how very different best-of-five tennis is, and why Grand Slam tennis is so glorious. The commitment isn’t for two weeks, it’s for a year, a career.
“You know, for a really, really long time obviously this is gonna hurt and stuff. I’m going to let this sting, but I’m gonna learn from this. I’m gonna turn the page, I’m going to try to end the year strong. I’m going to go to Asia, do the whole thing, do it the right way and not half-ass it. I’m going to be in these positions again, for sure. Just hoping for a different outcome.”
Tiafoe may love New York and New York loves him back. But it sure is tough love.
