Frances Tiafoe told he was ‘talking absolute nonsense’ during the US Open
Frances Tiafoe had a US Open to remember as he reached the semi finals of his home Grand Slam.
Tiafoe often saves his best tennis for the US Open and the 2026 was no different.
The American defeated the likes of Alex Michelsen, Daniil Medvedev, and Valentin Vacherot to reach the final four, where he was eventually beaten by Ben Shelton.
Tiafoe is up to a career ranking high of world No 8 thanks to his performances at Flushing Meadow this year, although his comments about playing best-of-five set matches at Grand Slams have not pleased John Lloyd.
Lloyd has been outspoken about Grand Slams switching to best-of-three sets for the men to avoid the injury issues that has plagued the ATP Tour this year.
After beating Michelsen in five sets, Tiafoe was adamant the scoring format should stay.
I think the men’s need to stick to three out of five. I don’t know where that conversation is going,” said Tiafoe in his post-match press conference.
“Everyone has their opinion but we have seen so many epics in five setters,” he added. Do I love five setters? Absolutely not. When I’m up two sets to love I would love to shake hands and go home.
“But it’s tennis, man. I grew up watching incredible tennis, incredible five setters. Novak vs Rafa, Federer vs Rafa. Incredible five setters which go on for hours and hours. That is the history of the game. I feel like your slam doesn’t mean as much personally if you get it done in two out of three format.”
Lloyd has reacted to Tiafoe’s comments and he’s dubbed them ‘nonsense’.
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“Frances Tiafoe made a comment after one of his marathons and said, ‘Well, if you turn the best of five sets into best of three, then it will devalue the Grand Slams.’ It will not,” said Lloyd on the Inside-In Tennis Podcast.
“He’s talking, much as I like him, he’s talking absolute nonsense. It won’t in any way diminish. In fact, people within a year or two will forget there even was best of five sets.
“People’s memories go quickly in that way. And the quality of tennis would go through the roof, particularly in the first week. And everybody always talks about the slams.
“They say, Oh, yeah, but those great semifinals and finals and yeah, but great players will always play great matches, even if it was best of three games. Because they’re great players.”
The best-of-five set debate was even more prevalent at the tournament as matches went long into the early hours of the morning in New York.
Most evening sessions finished after midnight, whilst Ben Shelton vs Carlos Alcaraz did not finish until after 3:30am.
Despite the late finishes, there have been no signs that Grand Slams are set to ditch the best-of-five set format for men’s tennis, much to Lloyd’s chagrin.
