The men’s semifinals are on Friday night in New York.
Italy’s Jannik Sinner remains a big favorite to win his first US Open title on Sunday. But on Friday, he must first get past Great Britain’s fast-rising Jack Draper, who is playing the best tennis of his young career. The other semifinal is an all-American affair, as we are guaranteed to have the first male singles finalist at a Major for the first time in over 15 years. Taylor Fritz faces Frances Tiafoe for the right to become that man.
Day 12 also features the championship match in women’s doubles.
Jannik Sinner (1) vs. Jack Draper (25) – 3:00pm on Arthur Ashe Stadium
Across the past 52 weeks, Sinner is now an elite 73-7 overall, and 53-4 on hard courts. During that span, he has collected six ATP titles, including his first Major in Australia. Jannik is 1-2 in Major semifinals, with losses to Novak Djokovic at last year’s Wimbledon, and Carlos Alcaraz at this year’s French Open.
This is a first Major semifinal for 22-year-old Draper, who prior to this fortnight had only once reached the fourth round at this level. It’s been a great few months for Jack, who won his first ATP title on grass in Stuttgart, and just a few days later upset Alcaraz at Queen’s Club. The Brit has not dropped a set through five rounds in New York, and is yet to even be pushed to a tiebreak. He’s been serving excellently, and only been broken three times through 15 sets.
Their only previous meeting was a straight-set victory for Draper three years ago at Queen’s Club, when he was a British wild card ranked outside the world’s top 300. But in a best-of-five match in 2024 on a hard court, Jannik is a clear favorite. Jack has not faced a returner as talented as the World No.1 to this stage, and he also has a history of his body failing him during prolonged matches. Draper had his leg taped up during his quarterfinal win on Wednesday over an also-injured Alex de Minaur, and an injury of any sort will make upsetting Sinner virtually impossible.
Taylor Fritz (12) vs. Frances Tiafoe (20) – Not Before 7:00pm on Arthur Ashe Stadium
What a moment this is for American men’s tennis, which has been criticized for the past two decades regarding underperforming at Majors. But the history between these two Americans has been rather one-sided. Fritz has dominated their head-to-head 6-1, with Tiafoe going 0-6 against the American No.1 since winning their first match back in March of 2016. All seven matches have taken place on hard courts.
However, a Major semifinal is new territory for Fritz, who was previously 0-4 in Major quarterfinals. The 26-year-old finally broke through on Tuesday afternoon with a four-set win over Alexander Zverev, as Taylor was the much more aggressive player during the crucial moments of that match. Fritz has also earned impressive victories these past 10 days over Casper Ruud and Matteo Berrettini. His serve has been the biggest reason why, winning over 80% of first serve points in all five of his matches.
This is a second Major semifinal for Tiafoe, after being just one set away from reaching the final two years ago against eventual champion Carlos Alcaraz. Frances struggled mightily after losing in the quarterfinals a year ago to Ben Shelton, but the 26-year-old avenged that loss during this year’s event, and is now arguably playing the best tennis of his career. As Mary Carillo highlighted during the quarterfinals, Tiafoe comes from a much less privileged upbringing than the other three American singles semifinalists, which Frances wrote about back in 2017.
Tiafoe’s experience in a semifinal on this very court gives him a decided advantage on Friday evening, as will the crowd. While both are Americans, Frances is the more popular of the two, and has been featured on Arthur Ashe Stadium a lot more than Taylor. However, Fritz will find confidence in his six wins over Tiafoe, and when recently asked about being 0-4 in Major quarterfinals, Taylor shared confidence that once he overcame that hurdle, he would soon find himself in a Major final. Based on his current level, I like Taylor’s chances of finding himself in Sunday’s final.
Other Notable Matches on Friday:
Lyudmila Kichenok and Jelena Ostapenko (7) vs. Kristina Mladenovic and Shuai Zhang – Kichenok and Ostapenko have dominated to this stage, and this is their second Major final of the year, after being runners-up this past January in Melbourne. Mladenovic already owns six Major titles in women’s doubles, and three in mixed doubles. Shuai is a two-time Major champion alongside Sam Stosur, and this title would be quite the achievement for Zhang, considering she’s currently on a 23-match losing streak in singles.
Friday’s full Order of Play is here.
