{"id":1199549,"date":"2022-09-06T14:55:33","date_gmt":"2022-09-06T14:55:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2022\/09\/06\/us-open-rafael-nadal-beaten-by-frances-tiafoe-in-fourth-round\/"},"modified":"2022-09-06T14:55:33","modified_gmt":"2022-09-06T14:55:33","slug":"us-open-rafael-nadal-beaten-by-frances-tiafoe-in-fourth-round","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2022\/09\/06\/us-open-rafael-nadal-beaten-by-frances-tiafoe-in-fourth-round\/","title":{"rendered":"US Open: Rafael Nadal beaten by Frances Tiafoe in fourth round"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><\/p>\n<div>\n<div class=\"td-post-featured-image\">\n<figure><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"696\" height=\"392\" class=\"entry-thumb\" src=\"http:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/09\/image_2022-09-06_073103195-696x392.png\"   alt=\"\" title=\"Frances Tiafoe (right) had lost his previous two meetings with Rafael Nadal\"\/><figcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Frances Tiafoe (right) had lost his previous two meetings with Rafael Nadal<br \/>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<p>Rafael Nadal has been beaten in a Grand Slam for the first time in 2022, losing to Frances Tiafoe in the US Open fourth round.<\/p>\n<p>American Tiafoe thrilled the home crowd with a 6-4 4-6 6-4 6-3 win over four-time champion Nadal in New York.<\/p>\n<p>The defeat ended the Spaniard\u2019s bid for a record-extending 23rd major singles title.<\/p>\n<p><!-- \/22191989129,1002554\/MGL\/mgl_ado_atunwa_300x250 --><\/p>\n<p>Nadal led the fourth set 3-1 before Tiafoe hit back, winning five games in a row to secure his quarter-final spot.<\/p>\n<p>He will face Russian ninth seed\u00a0<strong>Andrey Rublev<\/strong>\u00a0for a place in the semi-finals at Flushing Meadows.<\/p>\n<p>Tiafoe, seeded 22nd, threw his racquet to the floor and covered his face in disbelief as his victory was confirmed by a netted Nadal backhand.<\/p>\n<p>After thanking the crowd he covered his face with his towel, taking in the atmosphere on a raucous Arthur Ashe Stadium.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cSomething special happened today,\u201d the 24-year-old said on court.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI don\u2019t know what to say, I\u2019m so happy. He\u2019s one of the greatest of all time and I played unbelievable.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Nadal has never looked settled in New York this year but that is not to take anything away from Tiafoe, who played a clever match.<\/p>\n<p>Nadal\u2019s loss and the defeat for 2014 champion Marin Cilic who was beaten in five sets by Spanish teenager\u00a0<strong>Carlos Alcaraz<\/strong>\u00a0means there will be a first-time Grand Slam winner in Sunday\u2019s final.<\/p>\n<p>Alcaraz, 19, came through 6-4 3-6 6-4 4-6 6-3 in three hours and 53 minutes with the clock striking 02:24 in New York, a couple of minutes short of the latest-ever finish at Flushing Meadows.<\/p>\n<p>He will take on Italian 11th seed\u00a0<strong>Jannik Sinner<\/strong>\u00a0who also needed five sets to get past unseeded Belarusian Ilya Ivashka 6-1 5-7 6-2 4-6 6-3.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Nadal undone by entertaining Tiafoe<\/strong><\/p>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/09\/_126602027_nadal.jpg\" alt=\"\"\/><figcaption><strong>Rafael Nadal was competing at his first US Open since 2019<\/strong><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Nadal went into this match with a 22-0 record in Grand Slams this year, having won the Australian Open and French Open titles before withdrawing from Wimbledon after his quarter-final victory with an abdominal injury.<\/p>\n<p>That injury restricted his build-up to the US Open with Nadal arriving at Flushing Meadows having played only once since, a defeat by Borna Coric in Cincinnati.<\/p>\n<p>He has struggled for fluency in New York, particularly in his second-round match against Fabio Fognini, and showed similar nerves on serve against Tiafoe.<\/p>\n<p>Having changed his ball toss to protect the injury that ended his Wimbledon campaign, Nadal looked shorn of speed and confidence on his serve, and was broken by Tiafoe at 3-3 in the opener.<\/p>\n<p>After losing the first set, Nadal disappeared off court with the physiotherapist for eight minutes and appeared to have strapping added to his wrists.<\/p>\n<p>Although his serve never clicked \u2013 he finished with nine double faults to nine aces \u2013 he was able to take advantage of one poor Tiafoe service game at 5-4 in the second, being gifted the set by a Tiafoe double fault.<\/p>\n<p>The third set mirrored the first, Tiafoe breaking for a 4-3 lead with a fine backhand winner, and the American delighted his home crowd as he closed it out with an ace.<\/p>\n<p>Nadal appeared reinvigorated in the fourth set and was helped by Tiafoe becoming distracted as the roof closed during his service game at 2-1 down.<\/p>\n<p>Nadal broke serve but Tiafoe, helped by two Nadal double faults, responded instantly, and produced some excellent counter-punching to break twice more on his way to clinching victory.<\/p>\n<p>Despite the defeat, Nadal could still move to the top of the men\u2019s rankings after the tournament following defending champion\u00a0Daniil Medvedev\u2019s loss to Kyrgios on Sunday.<\/p>\n<p>Spain\u2019s Alcaraz and Norway\u2019s Casper Ruud would need to reach the final at least to have a chance to become the world number one.<\/p>\n<p>            <!--  [embed]https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=videoseries[\/embed]<!--\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe>--><\/p>\n<div class=\"youtube-embed\" data-video_id=\"Gem5xJEJYFY\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Drowned Boy: Body of 18-yr-old SHS boy still unrecovered from Labon River floods (6-9-22)\" width=\"696\" height=\"392\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/Gem5xJEJYFY?feature=oembed&#038;enablejsapi=1\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Frances Tiafoe (right) had lost his previous two meetings with Rafael Nadal Rafael Nadal has been beaten in a Grand Slam for the first time in 2022, losing to Frances Tiafoe in the US Open fourth round. American Tiafoe thrilled the home crowd with a 6-4 4-6 6-4 6-3 win over four-time champion Nadal in [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1199550,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[19],"tags":[7013,8019,9986,5937,722,1936,25278],"class_list":{"0":"post-1199549","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-sports","8":"tag-beaten","9":"tag-fourth","10":"tag-frances","11":"tag-nadal","12":"tag-open","13":"tag-rafael","14":"tag-tiafoe"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2022\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1199549","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2022\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2022\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2022\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2022\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1199549"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2022\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1199549\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2022\/wp-json\/"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2022\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1199549"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2022\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1199549"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2022\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1199549"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}