Ben Shelton Tops Frances Tiafoe at the US Open for His First Slam Semifinal. Novak Djokovic Is Next

Ben Shelton Tops Frances Tiafoe at the US Open for His First Slam Semifinal. Novak Djokovic Is Next
Ben Shelton of the United States returns a shot against Frances Tiafoe of the United States during their Men's Singles Quarterfinal match on Day Nine of the 2023 US Open at the USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center in the Flushing neighborhood of the Queens borough of New York City on Sept. 5, 2023. Elsa/Getty Images
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NEW YORK—Ben Shelton is still just 20, still new to this whole professional tennis thing. He is equipped with a tremendously good serve, but don’t think he can’t come through in other ways when it matters the most.

On a muggy night in which, yes, he hit 14 aces but also hit 11 double-faults, Shelton used one blink-and-you-missed-it booming return to save a set point in the pivotal tiebreaker and reached his first Grand Slam semifinal by edging Frances Tiafoe 6–2, 3–6, 7–6 (7), 6–2 at the U.S. Open in a back-and-forth contest filled with huge hitting by both.