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Historic US Open Semifinal: Tiafoe vs. Shelton
NEW YORK — Arthur Ashe still greets you before anyone hits a ball.
His name stretches across the front of the world’s biggest tennis stadium at the USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center, a permanent reminder of a man who didn’t just break a barrier. He smashed it and refused to let anyone glue it back together.
Ashe wanted the next generation — especially young Black Americans — to have a place in the sport that often shut them out. On Friday night, under the lights of the arena that bears his name, two of those heirs will walk into his house and play for a shot at history.
Frances Tiafoe vs. Ben Shelton. An all‑Black US Open men’s semifinal. On Ashe.
It’s a moment that stretches far beyond a box score.
A semifinal 50 years in the making
The stakes are blunt and staggering. 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.
They will both leave New York with career‑high rankings. Shelton is guaranteed to rise to No. 4 in the world. Tiafoe will be at least No. 8 and can climb to No. 4 himself if he lifts the trophy on Sunday.
Washington, who carried the baton to that 1996 Wimbledon final, doesn’t hide how big this is.
"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."
The sport, for one night, feels like it’s been waiting for this.
Gauff’s generation watches in disbelief — and pride
Coco Gauff knows what it means to see yourself on the biggest stage. The 2023 US Open champion, who fell in this year’s semifinals to Elena Rybakina, grew up studying the lineage of Althea Gibson, Venus Williams, Serena Williams and the Black women who reshaped the game.
Even she did a double take when the men’s draw produced Tiafoe vs. Shelton for a place in the 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."
One night, three Black Americans in the final four of the US Open singles draws. For decades, that sounded like fantasy. Now it’s a snapshot of where the game can go.
Ashe’s old warning, and a long wait
Ashe saw this future before anyone else, or at least believed it should arrive. He won the 1968 US Open, the 1970 Australian Open and Wimbledon in 1975, then retired in 1980 because of heart problems. He expected a wave behind him.
It didn’t come quickly.
"What we need is an American Yannick Noah," Ashe told the Los Angeles Times in 1988, invoking the charismatic Frenchman who won Roland Garros in 1983. "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."
The next true surge on the men’s side took years. Washington’s run to the 1996 Wimbledon final, where he lost to Richard Krajicek 6–3, 6–4, 6–3, finally made it feel as if someone might pick up Ashe’s relay baton.
On the women’s side, the revolution arrived with force. Venus Williams turned professional in 1994 and reached the US Open final in 1997. Serena Williams followed, turning pro in 1995 and then transforming the sport.
Yet for Black American men, the breakthrough remained stubbornly elusive.
Washington looks at Friday night and refuses to treat it as a cure‑all.
"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."
The moment is historic. It’s not enough on its own. That’s the tension running underneath the celebration.
The grind behind the glory
Washington, now 57, knows the road. He picked up a racket at 5, joined the tour in 1989 and announced himself a year later by upsetting world No. 2 Ivan Lendl at the Volvo International. His next match in that event? A three‑set loss to Bryan Shelton — Ben’s father.
The threads of this story have been winding through the sport for decades.
Washington and Tiafoe both point to the same hard truth: the door is heavy, especially for young Black players, but it isn’t locked. Tennis just doesn’t offer the same easy entry points as football and basketball, where fields and courts are everywhere and pickup games are part of daily life.
"Try to reach out to one of the local clubs where they give you a chance to play," Tiafoe said. He grew up honing his game at the Junior Tennis Champions Center in College Park, Maryland. "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."
Obsession. Repetition. Love. None of that shows up in the rankings list, but it’s what produces the names.
Washington, who climbed as high as No. 11 in the world and won four singles titles, strips it down even further.
"You can work your but 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."
Building the pipeline
Martin Blackman, CEO of the Junior Tennis Champions Center and former senior director for talent identification and development at the USTA, talks less about one magical night and more about systems.
His center’s model, disrupted by the coronavirus pandemic in 2020, brought kids in from local, regional and national camps, exposed families to high‑level training and locked in fundamentals by age 12 or 13. That’s the unglamorous part of this story — the repetition Tiafoe mentioned, scaled up.
Blackman sees Tiafoe vs. Shelton as a spark, not a shortcut.
"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, echoing the same idea from another angle.
Blackman puts it more bluntly when he looks at Friday night.
"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," he said.
The image of Tiafoe and Shelton under the Ashe lights can do what no brochure or clinic ever could: make a kid believe.
“You only need one”
Taylor Townsend, fresh off completing a career Grand Slam in doubles with her US Open title alongside Katerina Siniakova, has lived the power of that belief.
"You only need one," she 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?"
That’s the real weight of this semifinal. One of them will wake up Sunday as a Grand Slam finalist. Millions more will wake up knowing that picture exists.
Ashe’s clock strikes “this afternoon”
The sport has been warned about moments like this before. Near the end of his life, Ashe tried to explain how he thought about time.
"For some people, the future is next year," he told the L.A. Times. "But for me it’s this afternoon."
This afternoon has finally arrived on the court that bears his name.
Two Black American men. One US Open final on the line. A stadium, and a sport, staring at the version of itself Ashe imagined and asking the only question that matters now:
What comes next?
