“Hallelujah! Hallelujah! Hallelujah!” shouts John McEnroe during the broadcast, in the early hours of the morning, when Frances Tiafoe already has the ticket to the semifinals of the US Open in hand and, therefore, American men’s tennis will finally have a representative in the final on Sunday; it will be Big Foe —benefited by the physical problems of the Bulgarian Grigor Dimitrov, who retired with 6-3, 6-7 (5), 6-3 and 4-1 against him— or his compatriot Taylor Fritz, who previously, in the afternoon, had defeated the German Alexander Zverev. The years go by for the latter (27) and he remains empty-handed in the big ones, without responding to those enormous expectations that when he was a junior and put his head in the circuit pointed out that perhaps he could mark an era; the next chosen one, not a few specialists ventured with reason, since he was not lacking in seasoning. At the moment, blank. And the giant from Hamburg —defeated in the 2020 final— opens up while Arthur Ashe cheers the local tennis player: “I have done nothing to deserve the victory.”
Yes, Fritz has done it, another tower that also promised a lot but, in reality, has remained halfway; he has eight titles under his belt, with the one obtained in Indian Wells two years ago as the grand prize. majorshad never made it past the quarter-finals until Tuesday’s episode, which was decided by a 7-6 (2), 3-6, 6-4 and 7-6(3). Thus, the Californian will step into the penultimate round of a major stage for the first time, riding on his serve and his magnificent performances on a fast court. Torpedoed by injuries in his take-off in the elite, he celebrates today and hand in hand with his country, a superpower that rehearses again and again in the laboratory, but that since 2003 has not managed to find the ideal formula in the men’s territory; then, Andy Roddick was proclaimed champion of the New York tournament, and since then the drought continues. In any case, history points to his name again, having been the last finalist of his nationality on the asphalt of Flushing Meadows.
He did it in 2006, when he was beaten by Roger Federer. Three years later, in 2009, he clashed with the Swiss again at the end of Wimbledon, the setting for the final chapter with an American tennis player in the final duel. “The work is not done yet,” says Fritz, 12th in the world and who seemed to have lost ground compared to his generational partners, Tiafoe (26) and Tommy Paul (27). “How did I cope with that mentally? Well, every time I was in the quarterfinals I faced Djokovic, and if not Nadal; that’s how I managed to protect my ego, telling myself that. But this year they went with Musetti.” [en Wimbledon] and that excuse could no longer work,” jokes the American (26), while the local fans savor the dish, because since 2005, also at the US Open, two of their own have not clashed in a major semifinal; that night, Andre Agassi beat Robby Ginepri, and now the precedents reinforce Fritz’s candidacy.
Of the seven crosses between the two, he has won six. So Big Foepure showalways ready to make people enjoy themselves but also eager to make the big competitive leap, counters the argument that he does know the territory of the semi-finals; he played them in 2022, but that day he was facing a certain Alcaraz who was going to explode and stopped him in five sets. This time, a friend awaits him on the other side. “Taylor, Tommy, Reilly [Opelka, hoy día descabalgado] and now Ben too [Shelton]… We’ve been talking about it for years, we’ve been knocking on the door. It’s just a matter of time. [el éxito estadounidense]. Before you played a quarterfinal against Rafa [Nadal] and you were already looking at the return flights, but now it’s completely different; nobody is unbeatable, and even more so at this stage of the season,” says Tiafoe, the link to a festive day among stars and stripes: he, Fritz and also Emma Navarro, superior in the morning to Paula Badosa. This Wednesday, another bullet: Jessica Pegula against the number one, Iga Swiatek. Arthur Ashe roars, and McEnroe sings it.
FEDERER AND THE “INCONSISTENCY” OF THE ‘SINNER CASE’: “THE DEAL, THAT’S THE ISSUE”
AC | New York
The midnight roar was preceded by another shortly before, when the court realization focused on Roger Federer and the Swiss, retired for two years, appeared in his pants on the center court. The genius stood up and greeted. Before that, he spoke. He did it in the program Today (Today), from the NBC channel and addressed the thorny issue that marked the start of the tournament. Sinner case.
“It’s not the kind of news we like to see in our sport, regardless of whether he did anything [dio un doble positivo por dopaje en Indian Wells, marzo] “Or not. Or if another player did it. It is a noise that we do not want,” he said. “It is a complicated situation. It is every athlete’s nightmare,” he continued. “I understand the frustration of others, about whether he was treated the same as the others. That is the crux of the matter.”
And the 43-year-old from Basel, champion of 20 Grand Slams, points out: “We all believe that Jannik [número uno] He did nothing, but there is the inconsistency of not having been potentially sanctioned because we were not 100% sure of what was happening. That is the question that needs to be answered.”
Despite the positive test, the International Tennis Integrity Agency (ITIA) determined that there was no intention to infringe the rules on the part of the player, whose tests revealed traces of clostebol, an anabolic steroid. However, during the investigation process the Italian (23 years old) was able to continue competing.
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