No matter who wins Tuesday\u2019s US Open quarterfinals match between Frances Tiafoe and Ben Shelton, history will be made: For the first time, two Black men will face off in the match. <\/p>\n
It\u2019s also the first time since 2008 that two Black men play each other at Arthur Ashe Stadium. It\u2019s been nearly two decades since an American male has won tennis\u2019 US Open. And while much of the focus has been on whether 2023 will be the year that drought finally ends, tennis fans are taking a moment to savor this historic match up. <\/p>\n
Tiafoe and Shelton\u2019s personalities, he said, \u201care going to enrich the game.\u201d <\/p>\n
The match between the two rising tennis stars has also renewed focus on Black men playing tennis. Tiafoe, 25, and Shelton, 20, will face each other at a stadium christened after the Black tennis legend who broke barriers in the game. <\/p>\n
Arthur Ashe was the first African American man to be ranked No. 1 in tennis and the first to win numerous titles in the sport, including a singles title at the US Open, Australian Open and Wimbledon. He was also the first Black American to play on the United States Davis Cup team. <\/p>\n
\u201cWe got to have tennis where it\u2019s visible, where people can see the (Black) people that are playing,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n
He also said while people know the story of Venus and Serena Williams\u2019 path to tennis, \u201cwe just don\u2019t hear enough family stories about African American men. This is a high point.\u201d <\/p>\n
Both Tiafoe and Shelton were surrounded by the sport at a young age. <\/p>\n
A child of Sierra Leonean immigrants, Tiafoe and his family lived at a junior tennis champion center where his father worked in maintenance. A few years later, he enrolled in a tennis clinic at the center. <\/p>\n
In 2022, he became the first Black American man to reach a US Open semifinal since Ashe in 1972. <\/p>\n
Shelton is following in the footsteps of his father, Bryan, a tennis champion who won two professional titles and played on the Association of Tennis Professionals Tour. <\/p>\n
Earlier this year, Shelton\u2019s father resigned from coaching at the University of Florida to coach his son in professional tennis. <\/p>\n
Carrington said for young Black Americans, getting exposure to tennis is essential for the sport. It\u2019s up to the older generations, he said, to pass down their love for the game. <\/p>\n
But as they prepare for Tuesday\u2019s match, Carrington said if he were coaching Tiafoe and Shelton, he would tell them not to focus on the weight of this historic moment. <\/p>\n
\u201cTry to enjoy yourself,\u201d he said. \u201cDon\u2019t play with stress. Let the stress go.\u201d <\/p>\n\n
No matter who wins Tuesday\u2019s US Open quarterfinals match between Frances Tiafoe and Ben Shelton, history will be made: For the first time, two Black men will face off in the match. It\u2019s also the first time since 2008 that two Black men play each other at Arthur Ashe Stadium. It\u2019s been nearly two decades <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":7865,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-7864","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7864","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7864"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7864\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7865"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7864"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7864"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7864"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}