Tiafoe battled back from a huge deficit against Alex Michelsen to return to the semifinals for the third time in New York
Page S2From§Eachthe milkman edition — 9 September 2026
Tiafoe survives biggest comeback of his career to reach US Open semifinal for third time.
Hot Mic Moment
This reporter will say what the truck thinks is dead air: the man now holding this country's own championship trophy is an Italian national, the first man from his country ever to win it, per CNN. This reporter has sat through entire campaign seasons built on the notion that a foreigner arriving on American soil is the danger, without once naming the one currently holding the silver bowl at Flushing Meadows. Somebody patch this man through to the political desk before the feed comes back.
Gushis side
This reporter watched Frances Tiafoe climb out of what may be the largest hole of his career against Alex Michelsen under the lights at Flushing Meadows, punching his ticket to the U.S. Open semifinals for the very first time.
This reporter likes to measure a competitor against the best the men's game has to offer, and there is no higher bar right now than Jannik Sinner, who won his first Grand Slam title on this very court, beating Taylor Fritz in the final.
The crown, in this business, is rented, not owned, and nobody proved that faster this fortnight than Barbora Krejcikova, a two-time Grand Slam champion who became the first seeded player to fall out of this year's draw entirely.
Which is why this reporter finds Tiafoe's comeback the more remarkable story of the two: one player can lose the thread in straight sets, the way Krejcikova did, and another can find a match's worth of thread he didn't know he had, the way Tiafoe just did against Michelsen, and the very same tournament writes both endings in the same week.
Trudyher side
First time, nothing. Try the third time, same tournament, same man, per CBS Sports today. Tiafoe's got a standing address in the final four; getting there just keeps costing him more sets than it used to.
Second Grand Slam, not his first. Sinner beat Fritz for title number two, and it made him the first Italian man ever to win the U.S. Open, September 8, 2024, per CNN. The scoreboard's right there, Gus.
That much you got right. Krejcikova went down 7-6 (4), 6-2 on Court 17 on August 31, per the New York Post, closing out a hard year at the majors for a woman who's already won two of them. The bracket doesn't remember last year's trophy.
That's the sport, Gus. No score to fix there, just the truth of it.
Mic's hot, go lie down before you say something else true, sugar. He's still right on the receipt: Jannik Sinner is Italian, first man from that country to win the U.S. Open, September 8, 2024, per CNN.
“They'll sell you the comeback as proof anybody can do it. But the same tournament that week bounced a two-time Grand Slam champion in straight sets, per the New York Post — the ranking doesn't care what you won last year, only what you win today. That's the whole racket, in one bracket.”
“Nobody's forcing anybody onto that court — it's the purest meritocracy going, you win, you cash a check, you lose, you don't, and that's fair by definition. A two-time champion gets bounced in the first week? That's just the market correcting itself. Did I just compare a Grand Slam draw to a hedge fund? Strike that.”
The receipts
· In tennis, Jannik Sinner defeats Taylor Fritz in the final of the US Open Men's singles tournament to win his first US Open title ever and his second Grand Slam title overall. Sinner is also the first from the morgue, 8 Sep 2024
· Two-time Grand Slam champ Barbora Krejcikova the first seeded player to go down at US Open from the morgue, 31 Aug 2026
This page is a back-issue: the story as it ran, receipts as they were. The current edition is at the front.