Tiafoe defeats Karatsev in three sets at Atlanta Open

Francis Tiafoe got right back up.

Having put his third-round Wimbledon loss to Carlos Alcaraz behind him, and with a new coach and a new mindset, Tiafoe defeated Aslan Karatsev 6-4, 3-6, 6-3. Despite dropping the second set, Tiafoe stayed positive and came roaring back to win the third.

“I’m not trying to feel like I need to do so well … or whatever the case may be,” Tiafoe said after the match. “Just honestly need to go out there and enjoy myself and get the crowd going. Just smile and enjoy week to week.”

The crowd definitely enjoyed the first set where the players traded games back and forth until Tiafoe finally broke Karatsev in the fifth set to take a one-game lead. He won his next set with a 132-mile-per-hour ace and a Karatsev error and despite Karatsev mounting a comeback to bring himself to within one game, Tiafoe ultimately closed it out to win 6-4.

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In the second set, Tiafoe struggled more. Karatsev played offensively, forcing Tiafoe to run around the court on the defensive. Tiafoe made more errors and could not break Karatsev’s serve despite serving well himself.

“I think I played a little loose for me [in the second],” Tiafoe said. “I played a bad game at 1-0. A lot of loose errors. I think he didn’t do anything to break me, I kinda broke myself. I had this one break point where I had three points to get it back and didn’t get it. I still felt like I was the better player in the set, just a little bit loose for me and guy was really good. So that’s kinda all it takes.”

The 29th ranked player in the world put himself back together in the third, locking down his sloppy mistakes and continuing his powerful serve. Tiafoe ultimately earned 18 aces and won 84% of first serve points. It was a dominant performance that gave him his first win in the tournament and sent him to the next round to play Yoshihito Nishioka.

“Go out there and just do me,” Tiafoe said when asked about the next round. “I think if I do that, I’ll be in winning position. Obviously Nishioka’s tough, you’re gonna run, make you play a lot of balls so we’re gonna go out there again and have fun and take the battle for what it is.”

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