U.S. Open: Frances Tiafoe falls in fourth round to Canadian Felix Auger-Aliassime

American Frances Tiafoe and Canadian Felix Auger-Aliassime embraced at the net in Arthur Ashe Stadium Sunday night, two good buddies who appreciated a great battle.

One of them had to go home, and it turned out to be Tiafoe, who just couldn’t quite come up with the goods as Auger-Aliassime prevailed, 4-6, 6-2, 7-6 (6), 6-4, to gain the quarterfinals of the U.S. Open against Spanish teen Carlos Alcaraz.

"You guys are the best, you guys are amazing," the 21-year-old Auger-Aliassime, the 12th seed, told the pro-American crowd that nonetheless gave him him his share of love. "I hope this inspires kids in New York, back in Canada and all over the world."

Tiafoe went five sets to beat fifth seed Andrey Rublev in a match that finished at 2:14 a.m. Saturday. He didn’t look like he had a lot of gas in the tank Sunday night despite winning the first set. Auger-Aliassime helped Tiafoe’s cause by throwing in some unforced errors, failing to convert break points and serving sloppily. But in the second set Tiafoe seemed to go flat, and so did the crowd with Auger-Aliassime winning handily as he raised and maintained his game.

At the start of the third set the crowd tried to lift Tiafoe and he seemed to respond. He fought off two set points on his serve in the 10th game, and another set point in the 12th game to take it to the tiebreak.

Tiafoe held set point in the 11th point of the breaker but a forehand error evened it and Auger-Aliassime won the next two points to take the set. He pretty much controlled play the rest of the way and cleaned up his serving to reach his first Open quarterfinal. He lost to eventual champion Dominic Thiem in the Round of 16 last year.

Daniil Medvedev has yet to lose a set in this U.S. Open, cruising through four matches with relative ease.

His opponent in the quarterfinals has already played seven matches at Flushing Meadows, and who the heck is he anyway?

Medvedev, the Open’s No. 2 seed, didn’t have much trouble with Dan Evans, flicking him away, 6-3, 6-4, 6-3, at Ashe in 1 hour , 43 minutes.

At Armstrong Stadium, Botic van de Zandschulp (yes that Botic van de Zandschulp) went five sets to eliminate fan favorite and No. 11 seed Diego Schwartzman, 6-3, 6-4, 5-7, 5-7, 5-1, in more than double the time (4:20).

Medvedev, who has played the minimum of 12 sets here, was happy for the fast win: "I’m really happy that I beat such tough opponent with that score and with that much energy left, I would say."

He is slightly aware of van de Zandschulp, who played the maximum nine sets in the qualifiers and has played 18 in the main draw.

"I know he can play good," Medvedev said. "I saw this today, especially he chose very good tactic against Diego. He was all over the place."

Van de Zandschulp is 2021’s ultimate qualifier. The 25-year-old Dutchman, ranked 117 in the world, got through qualifying at the Australian Open, French Open and Wimbledon and now at the U.S. Open. He won his first-round matches at Roland Garros and Wimbledon. Even van de Zandschulp is a bit surprised to be where he is.

"Well, I started in quallies here. Didn’t really expect before the tournament that I would make the quarters here," he said. "Of course I won like two rounds, one in Wimbledon, one in Roland Garros . . . I knew that I could beat players who are ranked 20 or 10 in the world. But I didn’t do it like this often, this consistently."

Alcaraz beat German qualifier Peter Gojowczyk, 5-7, 6-1, 5-7, 6-2, 6-0, whose legs seemed to fall out from under him in the closing sets.

"I felt the energy of the crowd pushing me up," Alcaraz said. "Yeah, I think without the crowd, it couldn't be possible to be here."