The home crowd at Arthur Ashe Stadium will be buzzing with excitement on Friday over the all-American U.S. Open semi-final between Taylor Fritz and Frances Tiafoe, as Briton Jack Draper hopes to upset top seed Jannik Sinner on the other side of the draw.
The women’s doubles final will see Ukrainian Lyudmyla Kichenok and Latvian Jelena Ostapenko vie for the trophy against Frenchwoman Kristina Mladenovic and Zhang Shuai of China, after losing the Australian Open final.
FIRST MEN’S MATCH: SINNER vs DRAPER
World number one Sinner has held on at Flushing Meadows as other top contenders suffered early exits, and will hope to end Draper’s charmed run in pursuit of his second major title this year.
Draper had an inspired run to the fourth round a year ago and has emerged as the brightest hope to take up the mantle of British men’s tennis after three-time major winner Andy Murray played his last match at the Paris Games.
“Last year was a real turning point for me,” said Draper.
“I’ve believed for a long time that I’ve been putting in the work and doing the right things, and I knew that my time would come. I didn’t know when it would be, but hopefully from here, you know, I can do a lot of amazing things.”
SECOND MEN’S MATCH: FRITZ V TIAFOE
Fritz and Tiafoe each hope they will be the one to end a 21-year U.S. men’s major drought and will play under the bright lights at the crown jewel of American tennis.
Good friends off the court, their showdown guarantees a U.S. man will be in a major final for the first time since 2009 and Tiafoe said an American winner was “only a matter of time”.
“The game is open,” he said. “It’s not like it once was where you make quarterfinals, you play Rafa (Nadal), and you’re looking at flights.”
DOUBLES FINAL: Kichenok/Ostapenko V Mladenovic/Zhang
Kichenok and Ostapenko have not dropped a set and hope to keep their pristine run on track against the French-Chinese pair, who overcame favourites Katerina Siniakova and Taylor Townsend in a hard-fought semi-final.
U.S. OPEN ORDER OF PLAY ON FRIDAY
ARTHUR ASHE STADIUM (1600 GMT/12 PM ET)
Women’s doubles final
7-Lyudmyla Kichenok (Ukraine)/Jelena Ostapenko (Latvia) v Kristina Mladenovic (France)/Zhang Shuai (China)
NIGHT SESSION (1900 GMT/3 PM ET)
1-Jannik Sinner (Italy) v 25-Jack Draper (United Kingdom)
12-Taylor Fritz (U.S.) v 20-Frances Tiafoe (U.S.)
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