Tiafoe breaks new ground in Paris

That was the recipe on a balmy Friday evening in Paris, as No.15-seeded American Frances Tiafoe snapped a three-match losing streak against his compatriot and rival Sebastian Korda to reach the round of 16 at Roland-Garros for the first time. 

Scroll down for more on this all-American tilt.  

Story of the match 

For nearly 60 minutes, neither player could gain an edge in the seventh career meeting of these two rivals, and just the second on a clay court (the first won by Tiafoe in Estoril in 2022).

Short points, attacking tennis, and a feeling out process characterised the first 12 games inside Court Suzanne-Lenglen, in which neither player was broken.

Balls were flying in the warm conditions, and both Tiafoe and Korda took it as an opportunity to play a brand of first-strike tennis more typically seen on faster surfaces, each quick to pull the trigger and dictate as early and often as possible.

Eventually, Tiafoe would see his way through the smoke and take hold in the tiebreak, but not without a struggle. 

A 216kph ace down the middle took the 27-year-old to set point at 6-5, but Korda quickly replied with an ace of his own as the tightly-wound opening set continued through a second change of ends. 

Tiafoe got a stroke of good fortune when Korda fluffed a backhand into the net on the next point and he was quick to capitalise. A service winner, punctuated by a full-throated howl, ended the set, 7-6(6). 

Tiafoe cashed in on his momentum quickly in the second, jumping out to a 3-0 lead, and he found a deep groove from there. He ripped several phenomenal winners and assumed control as the set ticked on, eventually closing the stanza with a love hold to take a two sets to nothing lead.

There was more one-way traffic from Tiafoe in the third. Now firmly in control, he took the critical break in the seventh game before finishing off his third consecutive straight-sets win of the tournament in two hours and 25 minutes. 

Key stats 

Tiafoe joins Ben Shelton and Tommy Paul in the round of 16, marking the first time that three American men have reached that far at Roland-Garros in the same year since 1995.

If American qualifier Ethan Quinn can join them on Saturday, it will be the first time the American men have pushed a quartet into the round of 16 since 1991.

Tiafoe has turned his Roland-Garros fortunes around in a big way in the last few years. After dropping his first six main draw matches on the Parisian clay, he has won seven of ten. 

The American cracked 36 winners and saved both break points he faced to improve to 4-3 lifetime against Korda. 

Tiafoe’s take: 

On escaping a very difficult first set: “I thought I played really solid. I did a really good job in the first set, through long games on serve, and it was hard to lock in on his service games. Just getting out of there, I wasn’t playing my best early but I did a good job of hanging on." 

On playing in the warm, speedy conditions on Court Suzanne-Lenglen: “The ball was flying a lot more today. I thought the last match I was in great rhythm, the ball was coming off so cleanly. Today the ball was coming off with ease, it was a little different. Serves were coming off huge, so it was a little hard to return early. Faster conditions definitely help me.” 

On whether he feels pressure to be an entertainer on court: “I think the only thing I owe myself is just to be myself. I’m a happy dude, I’m very blessed to be able to play the game that I love, to travel the world and play the game at the highest level in front of crowds like this. I don’t have to be anything, it comes naturally.”

On how snapping a racket in practice last week helped him find his game: "I have been losing all kinds of matches, and I kind of was nonchalant about it, holding emotions in, not really letting guys know where I am at. I just kinda just lost it. That was big for me in terms of having emotion and understanding, being, like, 'Yes this sucks.'

"Actually facing it rather than just kind of being, 'Oh, you know, it's all right. No, it sucks. You have been playing horrendous. I think that was big for me, because then I finally actually adjusted and understood the why. And now I'm flying. I'm actually having fun again, battling, playing well."