Frances Tiafoe is trying to become the first American born tennis player to win the US Open since Andy Roddick in 2003. And on Wednesday afternoon, he inched even closer to reaching that reality.
Tiafoe took care of Andrey Rublev in straight sets (7-6, 7-6, 6-4) on Arthur Ashe Stadium to reach the semifinals at the US Open for the first time in his young career.
Despite being a betting underdog prior to the match against Rublev, Tiafoe now finds his odds climbing to win the tournament. Check out the full US Open odds below, via DraftKings:
Updated US Open Odds
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Carlos Alcaraz: +160
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Casper Ruud: +250
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Jannik Sinner: +400
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Frances Tiafoe: +450
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Karen Khachanov: +500
Coming into the quarterfinals, Australian Nick Kyrgios had emerged as the betting favorite to win the US Open. But after losing to Khachanov, the tournament is wide open, and nobody currently still standing has ever won a grand slam tournament.
So perhaps it’ll be the 24 year old Tiafoe who will seize the moment and pull of the open win in front of the home crowd. His story is rather unique, too.
It was Tiafoe’s father, Constant Tiafoe, who gave Frances the opportunity to play tennis at a young age. Constant worked as a janitor at the Junior Tennis Champions Center in Washington, D.C. back in 1999, and his children would sometimes spend nights at the center.
“Us being around tennis was kind of gets us getting out of our neighborhood. My dad kind of being able to watch us. It wasn’t anything supposed to be like this. Once we got in the game of tennis, it was like my dad was like, It would be awesome if you guys can use this as a full scholarship to school. I mean, we couldn’t afford a university,” Tiafoe said to CNN on Monday.
Now, Tiafoe finds himself at the center of the US Open hype, and after Wednesday, it looks like he has a real shot of taking home the trophy at the end of the weekend.
He’ll play the winner of the Alcaraz-Sinner match in the semifinals.
