The hopes that the American man would win the US Open were a huge hit on Friday when No. 6 Seed Ben Shelton and No. 17 Francistier Four lost their three-round match.
Shelton was the first of two to be bounced off the tournament when he was forced to medically retire during a match against Adrian Mannarino.
Shelton handled shoulder injuries during the match and had a medical timeout in four sets. He went on to win the next game. However, Mannarino was able to force the decisive fifth set after securing a break in Shelton’s next service game.
Unfortunately, Shelton continued to suffer from injuries and was forced to medically retire before the match ended. This is a disappointing situation for the 22-year-olds who won the National Bank Open in Toronto earlier this year.
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In the case of Tiafoe, the story was told completely in court. Jan-Lennard Struff was able to jump into a big lead by winning the first two sets 6-4 and 6-3.
Tiafoe then broke again in the third time, and Struff was put into the match 5-3. However, the nerve appeared to reach the veteran from Germany as he committed seven straight obstacles along the way to return his beak. The two went to a tiebreak where they continued to mirror each other before Struff ultimately won 9-7.
For Tiafoe, it was a particularly tough year as he bounced back at both the Australian Open and Wimbledon in the second round. He lost to Lorenzo Musetti after he managed to make the quarterfinals at the French Open. Tiafoe is also not past the fourth round of this year’s 1000 events.
The American hope lies on the man’s side and at Taylor Fritz, the fourth seed. Fritz will play Jerome Kim on Friday evening.
