ATLANTA – Frances Tiafoe’s dominant serve helped him to an early lead against Aslan Karatsev in the final set. Tiafoe did not look back and went on to win the final set 6-3.
Much anticipation and hype surrounded Tiafoe heading into the Atlanta Open as the headline. After coming off of a tough loss at Wimbledon against eventual winner Carlos Alcaraz, he wanted to start off strong.
Tiafoe did just that, winning the first set 6-4.
The second set proved to be too tall of a task to overcome early on. After going down 3-0, Tiafoe managed to get one point in an attempt to make a rally. Karatsav won the next point and won the second set 6-3.
“I think [I] was a little loose,” Tiafoe said when asked about the difference in his play in the second set. “I played a bad game at 1-0. A lot of loose errors. I think he didn’t break me, I broke myself. I had two break points to get it back and didn’t get it. I still felt like I was the better player in the set but a little loose for me.”
After the second set, Tiafoe changed shirts, rehydrated and refocused. He knew everything was on the line going into the third set.
“Give everything you got and try to go get a win,” Tiafoe said of his mindset going into the third set. “I think the biggest thing was starting well. I was serving first [and] trying to not get in an open hole and not play a loose game. I was just like ‘I’m going to make it really tough and make him earn this set’ and luckily it worked.“
Tiafoe won 84 percent on his first serves in this match. He also led in aces 18-14.
Tiafoe will play Yoshihito Nishioka tonight in the quarterfinals. The first serve is set for 7 p.m.