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Frances Tiafoe was the last American standing at the French Open.
And after leading two sets to one and 5-4 in the fourth set, he was one service hold away from a trip to the quarterfinals. Then he let it slip away.
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Tiafoe, the No. 19 seed, lost to Matteo Arnaldi in five sets at Roland Garros, ending the United States’ singles run in Paris in brutal fashion.
Arnaldi beat Tiafoe, 7-6 (5), 6-7 (3), 3-6, 7-6 (3), 6-4, to reach the quarterfinals.
This wasn’t just a loss.
It was a complete collapse.
Tiafoe was up two sets to one. He was up 4-1 in the fourth set. He had a double-break lead and a spot in the final eight sitting right there in front of him.
Then it all came apart.
Tiafoe dropped the opening set in a tiebreaker, then spent the next two sets wrestling control away from the unseeded Italian. He took the second set, pulled away in the third and appeared to have the match in his hands when he broke Arnaldi twice in the fourth.
That should have been enough.
It wasn’t.
Arnaldi broke back once. Tiafoe still had an opportunity to serve for the match, up 5-4. But Arnaldi broke him again. Then the Italian fought off a break point in the ensuing game, forced a fourth-set tiebreaker and eventually stole the set, turning what looked like a Tiafoe escape into a full-blown fifth-set fight.
By then, the match felt different.
Both players looked exhausted in the fifth set, but it was Arnaldi who was able to summon the extra energy to outlast Tiafoe in a battle of attrition.
And now, American tennis has nobody left in singles.
The United States started Roland Garros with legitimate hopes on both sides of the singles draw. Coco Gauff was the defending women’s champion. Madison Keys was still alive into the second week. Ben Shelton, Taylor Fritz, Tommy Paul, Learner Tien, Zachary Svajda and others gave American men’s tennis plenty of chances to make noise.
Then it was only Tiafoe.
Until it wasn’t.
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The loss stings even more because Tiafoe is comfortable in these moments. He has made deep runs at majors before, most notably reaching the semifinals at the U.S. Open in 2022 and earning a quarterfinal berth in last year’s French Open.
He also had to fight just to get here, surviving Hubert Hurkacz in five sets earlier in the tournament and rallying from two sets down against Jaime Faria in the third round. He had never faced three consecutive five-set matches during a major tournament until Monday.
So, no, this was never a clean ride.
But it was still right there.
Arnaldi’s reward is a quarterfinal matchup against Matteo Berrettini, who beat Juan Manuel Cerundolo in straight sets earlier on Monday. Cerundolo had stunned top-seeded Jannik Sinner earlier in the tournament.
Berrettini certainly isn’t a pushover. He’s a former Wimbledon finalist and, when healthy, has enough power to make anyone uncomfortable.
But this is also what makes Tiafoe’s loss so hard to absorb.
Carlos Alcaraz isn’t in the tournament after withdrawing because of a wrist injury. Sinner was knocked out. Novak Djokovic was upset by 19-year-old Joao Fonseca.
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The men’s draw is wide open by Roland Garros standards, and Tiafoe had a real chance to make the deepest French Open run of his career. He was also trying to become the first American man to win a Grand Slam singles title since Andy Roddick won the U.S. Open in 2003, and the first American man to win the French Open since Michael Chang in 1989.
American tennis needed somebody to stick around.
Tiafoe nearly did.
Instead, after leading 4-1 in the fourth set with a double-break advantage, he became the last American singles player to exit Paris.
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