‘Kind of like a similar thing with Alcaraz and Djokovic’: Frances Tiafoe

Frances Tiafoe’s dream of winning his maiden Grand Slam title came to a crashing end once again on Saturday. The 26-year-old crashed to a 6-4 5-7 6-4 4-6 1-6 against Taylor Fritz in their US Open 2024 semi-final encounter.
Speaking after his defeat, Tiafoe straightaway pointed out the reason for his defeat, following a similar template to Carlos Alcaraz after the Spaniard lost to Novak Djokovi in the 2023 French Open semi-final.
“It’s tough. It’s really, really tough. This one’s gonna hurt really bad. I mean I thought I was the better player for sure tonight. But in the fourth, I had some in and out cramps. I felt like my body kinda just shut down on me. Probably had a lot to do with nerves. Kind of just went down, just kind of like a similar thing with Alcaraz and Novak that year the French. It kinda seems like the same thing. Couldn’t really move,” Tiafoe said.
After his French Open 2023 semi-final defeat to Djokovic, Alcaraz had said, “[It] has been really tough for me today. I have never felt something like I did today. I have never felt that tension that I did in that match. Of course playing a semi-final of a grand slam, you have a lot of nerves, but even more with facing Novak. That’s the truth. Next time that I’m gonna face Novak, I hope to be different, but the nerves will be there.”
This was also Tiafoe’s second Grand Slam semi-final appearance, having reached the last-four in the US Open in 2022 too. Meanwhile, the farthest he has reached in Wimbledon is the fourth round in 2022 and third round in the 2023 French Open. Meanwhile, at the Australian Open, he only reached the quarter-final once in 2019.