Astoundingly, Alcaraz had only played seven Slam main draws before competition kicked off in New York last month, with the 2021 US Open being his event debut. And what a debut it was, as the then 18-year-old upset Stefanos Tsitsipas in the third round before going on to the quarter-finals, his first at a Major. He went on to reach his second quarter-final at the highest level in Paris in June before losing to Alexander Zverev in four sets.

Tiafoe has a solid record from previous US Opens, reaching the fourth round in 2020 and 2021, losing to Daniil Medvedev and Felix Auger-Aliassime respectively on those occasions. His best Major result came back at the 2019 Australian Open, making it to the quarter-finals before losing to eventual finalist Rafael Nadal.

Head-to-head: Alcaraz 1-0 Tiafoe

As in the other men’s semi-final, these two competitors have only met once before on court, also on clay. That match came in the first round of the 2021 Barcelona Open, when Tiafoe was ranked 65th in the world and Alcaraz was yet to break into the top 100, ranked 119th. The American won 6-4, 7-6 (7-2) that day.

While Tiafoe has not faced Alcaraz since, he did pull off the win of his life against the mould of the young man, the great Nadal. In fact, the Spaniard is the only man to have taken a set of the 24-year-old so far at Flushing Meadows.