Before they took to the court, Coco Gauff kicked off the day session on Arthur Ashe with a hard-fought win over Elina Svitolina.She was asked in her post-match press conference how she predicted the match after her would go.
“I have no idea,” she said. Her only prediction? “I definitely think it’s going to go five sets I would say. Now, who wins? I don’t know.
“But hopefully it’s not too strenuous because they probably most likely will be playing Novak next. That will take a lot of energy too (laughing).”
Tiafoe will be rewarded for his part in an epic with a likely encounter with Novak Djokovic, provided he beats Alexei Popyrin. While Gauff is right to have concerns over how strenuous the match against Shelton was, that will not matter one bit to Tiafoe after the rollercoaster of emotions both men faced.
Shelton drew first blood, breaking Tiafoe and looking fearsome off his serve as he took the opening set. But Tiafoe stole the second set late on and there was nothing to separate the pair between some scintillating tennis in the third before Shelton won a tie-break.
Another exciting fourth set saw Shelton miss a chance to break, only for Tiafoe to hold serve then snatch a break of his own back to force a decider. Shelton squandered two break points in the third service game, then Tiafoe responded with a break of his own to seize control of the match.
It put Shelton on the back foot, and Tiafoe backed it up with a formidable game on his own serve to go 4-1 up.
Shelton refused to go down without a fight. But Tiafoe’s own booming serve meant he gave Shelton little chance to break back and had the chance to serve for the match at 5-3 in the final set.
After losing the first point to Shelton’s power, Tiafoe responded to win the next three points. It gave him two chances to win the match and send the packed afternoon crowd into raptures to cap off an exciting afternoon on Arthur Ashe.
Shelton denied him on the first occasion, but Tiafoe fired in a vicious first serve before a sumptuous drop shot capped off arguably the biggest win of his career. He shared a lengthy embrace with Shelton at the net before a well-deserved moment to soak up the applause and celebrate with the New York crowd.
