The hopes of an American man winning the US Open took a huge hit on Friday when No. 6 seed Ben Shelton and No. 17 Frances Tiafoe both lost their third-round matches.
Shelton was the first of the two to be bounced from the tournament when he was forced to medically retire during his match with Adrian Mannarino.
Shelton was dealing with a shoulder injury during the match, taking a medical timeout during the fourth set. He was able to continue and won the following game. However, Mannarino managed to force a decisive fifth set after securing a break on Shelton’s next service game.
Unfortunately, Shelton continued to be bothered by the injury and was forced to medically retire before the conclusion of the match. It is an unfortunate situation for the 22-year-old, who won the National Bank Open in Toronto earlier in the month to bring some positive momentum into the final Grand Slam of the year.
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For Tiafoe, the story was told entirely on the court. Jan-Lennard Struff was able to jump out to a big lead by winning the first two sets 6-4 and 6-3.
Tiafoe was then broken again in the third and Struff served for the match at 5-3. But nerves appeared to get to the veteran from Germany as he committed seven straight faults en route to giving the beak back. The two went to a tiebreak where they continued to mirror one another before Struff finally came away with the win 9-7.
It’s been a particularly tough year for Tiafoe as he was bounced in both the Australian Open and at Wimbledon in the second round. He managed to make the quarterfinals at the French Open before losing to Lorenzo Musetti. Tiafoe also hasn’t made it past the fourth round of any 1000 events this year.
American hopes on the men’s side now lie with Taylor Fritz, the No. 4 seed. Fritz plays Jerome Kym on Friday evening.
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