Fifty-eight years after Ashe’s triumph, two Black Americans meet for a place in the US Open final

Coco Gauff was asked on Wednesday night about the two men who had qualified for the US Open semifinals a few hours earlier, and about the date. Her words mean everything about the Shelton-Tiafoe scheduled on Friday night. “I think it’s so incredible,” she said. “Especially on the men’s side, I never thought I would see, be able to have the chance to see an all-Black semifinal between the guys in my lifetime, honestly. You just look at, even growing up, just look at who was playing, I just never thought that that would be able to happen.”

Friday is the first all-Black American semifinal at a tennis Grand Slam. Frances Tiafoe and Ben Shelton had booked it on September 9 which is the day Arthur Ashe won this tournament in 1968. They play on Friday, on the court named after him, and the winner will be the first Black American man in a US Open final since Ashe himself.

What Ashe did, and what has not happened since

At the time, Ashe beat Tom Okker 14-12, 5-7, 6-3, 3-6, 6-3 at the West Side Tennis Club in front of 7,100 people, serving more than 25 aces. It was the first edition of the tournament open to professionals, and Ashe was not one: he was an amateur, a UCLA graduate and a US Army officer, and the $14,000 first prize went to Okker while Ashe collected a $20 per diem.

He was 25. He became the first Black man to win a Grand Slam singles title in the Open era, five months after the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr. and three months after that of Robert Kennedy. He died in 1993, at 49.

No Black American man has won this title since. The nearest anyone has come is MaliVai Washington, a Wimbledon finalist in 1996. Shelton and Tiafoe have both been to the semifinals in New York before, but never in the same year: Tiafoe in 2022 and 2024, Shelton in 2023. No American man of any background has won a major in 23 years.

The women’s side of the sport has the lineage the men’s has never built. Althea Gibson won at Forest Hills in 1957 and 1958, eleven years before Ashe, having become the first Black player to win a major at the French Championships in 1956. Venus and Serena Williams turned that into a dynasty, and the succession has not broken since: Sloane Stephens took this title in 2017, Naomi Osaka in 2018 and 2020, Gauff in 2023, with Madison Keys and Taylor Townsend part of the same generation.

Gauff is still the most recent American of either sex to win here. After Ashe, the men have had nobody at all, which is why writer William C. Rhoden, who knew Ashe and calls him a mentor, writes that he would be proud of Tiafoe and Shelton and disappointed that it has taken nearly sixty years.

Two players who got here the hard way, hours apart

Tiafoe, 28 and the No. 11 seed, was two sets and a break down to Alex Michelsen and four points from the end of his tournament, and won 5-7, 3-6, 7-5, 6-3, 7-6 (6). When it finished he cut his celebration short and went to the net to hold his 22-year-old compatriot up. “As soon as I hugged him I saw he was crying already,” he said. “I was like, man, I know. I know how much that hurts, but you’re gonna be here so many more times, man.”

Shelton, 23 and the No. 8 seed, went on after him and beat two-time defending champion Carlos Alcaraz 6-7 (5), 6-1, 6-3, 1-6, 7-6 (7) at the latest finish in the tournament’s history, taking the deciding tie-break 10-7 with an ace at gone three in the morning. He had lost all 17 of his previous matches against top 3 opponents, winning one set in all of them. “That was a war, epic match, so physical,” he said. “The most enjoyable match that I’ve had in my career, for sure.” He described it to Andscape, an ESPN-owned outlet covering sports and culture from a Black American perspectiveas, “the greatest moment on the tennis court of my life.”

This is the third Grand Slam semifinal for each of them

Tiafoe reached this stage here in 2022, losing to Alcaraz in five sets, and again in 2024, leading Taylor Fritz by two sets to one before losing in five. All three of his major semifinals have come in New York. Shelton lost his first two in straight sets, to Novak Djokovic at the 2023 US Open and to Jannik Sinner at the 2025 Australian Open.

Tiafoe says the man arriving at this one is not the one who arrived at the others. “I’m a different person in general,” he told Andscape. “Those two runs were great, something I’ll carry forever, but I’m not that person who I was when I made the run in 2022 and made one in 2024.”

I’m still pumped about it, excited about it, but I have higher hopes for myself. The tournament is still going

And on what has replaced the wonder: “I’m still pumped about it, excited about it, but I have higher hopes for myself. The tournament is still going. There’s a lot more tennis to be played.”

Their backgrounds are as different as their games. Tiafoe’s parents left Sierra Leone during the civil war that began in 1991, and his father worked at the Junior Tennis Champions Center in Maryland where Frances and his twin brother learned the game. Shelton came late to the tour, playing two seasons at Florida under his father, a former professional.

Gauff, who lost her own semifinal to Elena Rybakina 3-6, 6-4, 6-4 on Thursday night, had already said what she would be doing on Friday. “I have so much respect for both Ben and Frances, so I’m just rooting for a good match, and hopefully whoever wins can bring it home.”

US Open schedule, 2026 september 11th

Day session, from 12:00

• Women’s doubles final: Katerina Siniakova (Czech Republic) and Taylor Townsend (United States), the No. 1 seeds, against the American wildcard pair Ashlyn Krueger and Robin Montgomery
• Men’s singles semifinal, not before 3:00 pm: Alexander Zverev (Germany), the No. 1 seed, against Karen Khachanov (Russia), unseeded

Evening session, from 7:00 pm

• Men’s singles semifinal: Frances Tiafoe (United States), the No. 11 seed, against Ben Shelton (United States), the No. 8 seed