Frances Tiafoe’s 2024 US Open campaign has been a success so far as the American star managed to reach the semifinals of the tournament. While ESPN analyst Pam Shriver is amongst the many to laud Tiafoe, she claimed that he has played this level of tennis because he opted out of the Olympics.
Shriver could be right in believing that Tiafoe has learned a lot in the past year and has come a long way from losing to Ben Shelton in the quarterfinals of last year’s US Open.
But it is her take on Tiafoe missing out on the Olympics making him a favorite to lift the US Open title, which is debatable.
“I think the decision for Frances not to play the Olympics, obviously Washington DC, which is where he grew up, was an important tour stop. Frances getting on the hard courts, getting his teeth sunk into this segment of the circuit is why he has a chance to win this US Open. From 2-1 down against Shelton, we’ve seen the best of Frances,” Shriver said recently on The Rennae Stubbs Tennis Podcast.
However, what Shriver missed out on the fact that the American No.1 Taylor Fritz didn’t miss the Olympics and has still reached the semis where he will be facing Tiafoe now.
On the contrary, Fritz took part in all three tennis events at the Olympics and won a bronze medal in the men’s doubles category along with Tommy Paul. Additionally, Fritz is as good on hard courts as Tiafoe is.
Secondly, Shriver had also lauded Donna Vekic, her pupil who won a silver medal in the women’s singles category at the Paris 2024 Games. However, Vekic lost the Round of 16 clash at the US Open. On that, Shriver didn’t have much to say except highlight Vekic’s medal performance more on platforms like ESPN and the Stubbs podcast.
If Shriver had a strong logic in correlating Olympics participation to US Open success, then it needs to be consistent for all players. So it appears that she is contradicting her own beliefs.
Nevertheless, Tiafoe and Fritz will now be facing each other on Friday evening at the Arthur Ashe Stadium. Either of theirs’ victory is going to be a special moment for American fans as an American seat is secured in the men’s singles final.
