US Open news: Frances Tiafoe keeps hot streak alive after second-round win appeared first on ClutchPoints. Add ClutchPoints as a Preferred Source by clicking here.
Frances Tiafoe has made a name for himself time and time again at the U.S. Open, and he is doing so once again this summer. On Wednesday night, the American pushed his way into the third round with a decisive 6-3, 7-6, 7-5 win over Japanese qualifier Rei Sakamoto on Louis Armstrong Stadium.
With this win, Tiafoe reached the third round at each of the last seven U.S. Opens, the longest active streak in men’s tennis according to ESPN Insights.
Tiafoe had to come back from two-sets-to-one down in his first-round match against fellow American Martin Damm Jr., but Wednesday night’s contest was much more straightforward. After playing a rock-solid tiebreak to win the second set, Tiafoe found a break of the big Sakamoto serve at 6-5 in the third set to close out the match.
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During Tiafoe’s seven-year streak, he has made plenty of memories in New York and also suffered his fair share of heartbreaks. In 2022, the Washington D.C. native took the tennis world by storm with upsets of Rafael Nadal and Andrey Rublev to reach the semifinals, where he was beaten by eventual champion Carlos Alcaraz in an epic five-setter.
In 2023, Tiafoe had his heart broken in the quarterfinals by Ben Shelton in what was a big upset at the time. He made it back to the semifinals in 2025, but lost in a fifth and deciding set again against Taylor Fritz.
This year, Tiafoe’s draw has already opened up a bit after Novak Djokovic and Brandon Nakashima both fell by the wayside in the first two rounds. 2021 U.S. Open champion Daniil Medvedev could be a tough test in the fourth round, but it’s easy to see a path back to the semifinals for Tiafoe in 2026.
The No. 11 seed is also playing some of the best tennis of his career this season. He won the biggest title of his career on the grass in Halle in June and made a run all the way to another Masters 1000 final in Cincinnati in the buildup to the U.S. Open. That form has everyone waiting for another run in New York from Big Foe.
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