Los Angeles [US], September 2 : Frances Tiafoe advances to the quarterfinals of the ongoing US Open after defeating Australia's Alexei Popyrin in his round of 16 match on Monday.
The 20th seed earned his third successive qualification to the quarterfinals of the event, beating Popyrin, who ousted Serbian icon Novak Djokovic in the third round, by 6-4, 7-6(3), 2-6, 6-3 in three fours and two minutes.
The American will be facing ninth-seed Grigor Dimitrov in his last eight encounter.
Speaking after the match as quoted by ATP's official website, Tiafoe said that he dreamt of playing this competition since a kid, when he was practicing his strokes by hitting the ball on the walls.
"I always dreamt about playing on this court [since I was] a kid. I used to hit against the wall and wanted to compete on this court," Tiafoe said in his on-court interview.
"Seeing the Williams sisters (Serena and Venus) win titles here, seeing Roger (Federer) win here a million times, I was like 'I just want to play on this court'. It is so iconic, obviously named after Arthur Ashe, so I wanted to be a part of that. I think it brings out the best of me," added the player.
Tiafoe arrived in Cincinnati with a win-loss record of 19-18 this season and since then, has won nine out of his 10 matches, including a run to the final of the ATP Masters 1000 event in Ohio and qualification to the final eight at the US Open.
Popyrin led the second set 5-2 and earned three set points on serve at 5-3, 40/0, before his second serve let him down during the tie-break. He also hit eight double faults during the course of the match.
On the other hand, Germany's Alexander Zverev also earned his QF spot following a win over Brandon Nakashima. He beat Brandon by 3-6, 6-1, 6-2, 6-2.
With this victory, Zverev qualified for the ATP Finals for seventh time as well. The season finale will be taking place from November 10-17. The match lasted for two hours and 38 minutes and was Zverev's 450th career win.
Speaking after his match, Zverev said, "I was extremely defensive at the beginning of the match and Brandon used it very well and played an awesome set. I knew that I had to step up my game and take the ball on the rise more and I did well today and I am happy to be back in the quarter-finals."
Zverev lifted the ATP Finals trophy in 2018 and 2021. His next challenger in the QFs will be America's Taylor Fritz. The German is aiming for his second title win of the season after the ATP Masters 1000 title in Rome. He has a total of tour-leading 56 wins in 2024 and is second in the ATP Live Race to Turin.
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