Frances Tiafoe outshines Ben Shelton in top-20 clash at US Open

In the first top-20 men’s match at this year’s US Open, Americans Frances Tiafoe and Ben Shelton played a thrilling five-set match that lived up to its promise. The 20th-seeded Tiafoe reached the round of 16 in New York for the fifth consecutive year.

Friday’s third round was a rematch of last year’s US Open quarterfinal, which Shelton won in four sets. This time it was Tiafoe who emerged victorious, claiming a 4-6, 7-5, 6-7 (5), 6-4, 6-3 victory.

Tiafoe had a 15-15 record at tour level this season at Wimbledon but has won 12 of his last 16 matches since hiring David Witt as coach in Atlanta in July.

Tiafoe, who started the season 0-4 against players in the ATP’s top 20 at Wimbledon, has now won five of his last six matches against top 20 players, with his only loss coming to Jannik Sinner in the Cincinnati final.

In the second week at Flushing Meadows, Tiafoe is joined by Taylor Fritz, the highest-ranked American male player at No. 12. He easily defeated Argentina’s Francisco Comesana in three sets.

In doing so, Fritz became the first American to reach the round of 16 of all four majors in one year since Andre Agassi in 2003.

In other men’s singles matches on Friday, both sixth-seeded Andrey Rublev and ninth-seeded Grigor Dimitrov easily won in three sets, setting up a fourth-round showdown on Sunday.

ESPN Stats & Information and Reuters contributed to this report.