Frances Tiafoe and Ben Shelton: A Historic US Open Semifinal Showdown

NEW YORK — The name on the front of Arthur Ashe Stadium has always carried weight. On Friday night, it will feel heavier than ever.

Under the lights at the USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center, Frances Tiafoe and Ben Shelton will walk into the world’s biggest tennis arena carrying a story that stretches far beyond rankings, seedings, or even the US Open itself. They will be playing for a place in the final. They will also be stepping into a history Arthur Ashe helped write and never got to finish.

The winner will become the first Black American man to reach a US Open singles final since Ashe in 1972, and the first Black American man to reach any Grand Slam singles final since MaliVai Washington at Wimbledon in 1996. One night, one match, and suddenly a drought measured in decades is on the line.

By the end of the tournament, both men will own career-high rankings. Shelton is guaranteed to rise to No. 4 in the world. Tiafoe will be at least No. 8 and can climb all the way to No. 4 if he goes on to lift the trophy on Sunday.

Washington, who carried the baton to that Wimbledon final 30 years ago, understands the scale.

"I think it’s an exciting time," he told USA TODAY Sports. "If one of them goes on to win the US Open, it will be the greatest sports story certainly of this year, and certainly of this decade. I think it shows how the growth and progression of tennis is going in the right direction. They are two great representatives of what tennis can be and what American tennis can be.

"This match and the finals will likely be the two most watched tennis matches in a long, long time."

On a fortnight when Coco Gauff’s title defense ended in the semifinals against Elena Rybakina, the 2023 champion could still feel the significance from her side of the locker room corridor. She grew up in the shadow of Althea Gibson, Venus Williams and Serena Williams, fully aware of what Black women have meant to tennis. Yet even she did a double take when the men’s draw produced Tiafoe vs. Shelton for a spot in a major final.

"Especially on the men’s side, I never thought I’d have the chance to see an all-Black semifinal between the guys in my lifetime," Gauff said. "Even growing up, just look at who was playing. I just never thought that would be able to happen. To have also me in the semis, I think it’s really cool. I have so much respect for both Ben and Frances. I’m just rooting for a good match. Hopefully, whoever wins can bring it home."

For many, this night has been a long time coming.

Ashe broke through in the late 1960s and mid-1970s, winning the 1968 US Open, the 1970 Australian Open and Wimbledon in 1975. When he retired in 1980 because of heart issues, he believed more Black players would soon follow his path to the sport’s biggest stages.

In 1988, he told the Los Angeles Times exactly what he thought tennis needed.

"What we need is an American Yannick Noah," Ashe said, invoking the charismatic Frenchman who won the 1983 French Open. "In many respects, I wasn’t a very good role model. We need someone who’s got flair and can play in-your-face tennis. And he should comport himself like Julius Erving."

That next wave never arrived in the way Ashe imagined. Washington’s run to the Wimbledon final in 1996, where he lost to Richard Krajicek 6–3, 6–4, 6–3, felt like a breakthrough, but it did not trigger a flood of Black American men onto the tour. Instead, it was the women who surged to the front.

Venus Williams turned professional in 1994 and reached the US Open final in 1997. Serena Williams followed her sister into the sport’s elite, reshaping tennis and sports culture in the process. For years, they stood as the most visible examples of Black excellence in tennis while the men’s side waited for its next Ashe, its next Washington.

Now, with Tiafoe and Shelton, the sport finally has two.

Washington, now 57, refuses to treat this as a finish line.

"I don’t believe that just one match or one final or even this occasion, all of a sudden you are going to see this flood of players coming on to the tour," he said. "To come on to the tour, it’s a 15-year process. If there is not an infrastructure to bring up these young players, to encourage and to impact these young players for an extended period of time, there will not be an increase of interest in the sport."

He is blunt about the work required behind the romance of a single night on Ashe. Junior circuits. College programs. Coaching. Money. Patience. Discipline, repeated over years, not weeks.

"Though this match is extremely significant and it plays a role and it will be very positive for getting Black kids, but not just Black kids, but white kids, Hispanic kids, Asian kids, Native kids, it will play an important role in just getting more involved and interested in the sport," Washington said.

His own path underlines the point. He picked up a racket at 5. He reached the tour in 1989. A year later, he stunned world No. 2 Ivan Lendl at the Volvo International. His next match in that same tournament was a three-set loss to Bryan Shelton.

Bryan’s son is the one walking into Arthur Ashe Stadium on Friday night.

Access remains the hard part. Tennis courts are not playground hoops. They are not makeshift end zones chalked out on a patch of grass. Football and basketball thrive on how easy they are to play anywhere, with anyone. Tennis demands courts, equipment, coaching, repetition.

Tiafoe knows that better than most. He grew up around the Junior Tennis Champions Center in College Park, Maryland, where he honed his game as a teenager.

"Try to reach out to one of the local clubs where they give you a chance to play," he said. "And then once you get in that door, man, just come in there hungry, especially when you're young. You gotta be obsessed with this thing, man, because tennis is such a repetitive sport. You gotta really get them reps in. But mostly, you have to love it."

Martin Blackman, CEO of the Junior Tennis Champions Center and former senior director for talent identification and development at the USTA, believes the system that shaped players like Tiafoe can still do more — if it’s properly supported.

Before the coronavirus pandemic, the model was clear: bring kids in from local, regional and national camps, show them and their families what high-level training looks like, and lock in sound fundamentals by age 12 or 13. He wants that structure not just restored, but reinforced.

And he knows what Friday’s match can do for that mission.

"It’s something to celebrate: two amazing players, two amazing representatives of sport. But it’s two guys who will inspire thousands of kids to pick up rackets and try our sport. It's a watershed moment," Blackman said.

Washington, who rose as high as No. 11 in the world and won four singles titles, circles back to the same theme: talent alone is never enough.

"You can work your butt off for years, and that doesn’t guarantee you will become a professional tennis player," he said. "You have to have the infrastructure and the passion. A lot of things go into it, you just have to give yourself the best chance."

Taylor Townsend, fresh from completing a career Grand Slam in doubles with her US Open title alongside Katerina Siniakova, sees Shelton and Tiafoe as part of a broader surge in representation, not an isolated flash.

"You only need one," Townsend said. "You need somebody to be able to see that it's possible, that you can. I've said this where if you don't see it, then it's harder to believe it, but also, you have to be a certain type of person to want to take on that feat and say, Well, I'm going to carve this path for myself or for someone else or for the others who come after me.

"So for me, I'm so proud to be able to click on the TV and watch Frances and Ben, and one of them is going to be able to be in a Grand Slam final, and that's a beautiful thing. You know, Robin (Montgomery), myself, you know, it's been Coco, it's been a phenomenal US Open for people of color, and just being able to show people, like, it's possible, you know?"

On Friday night, the cameras will pan across the packed stands, the primetime stage, the glowing letters spelling out Arthur Ashe’s name. The stadium exists because Ashe refused to accept that tennis belonged to someone else. He broke the glass and never wanted it repaired.

Decades ago, he told the Los Angeles Times how he measured the future.