US Open: Brilliant Frances Tiafoe Sends Rafael Nadal Crashing Out

Frances Tiafoe of the United States produced the performance of a lifetime to send Rafael Nadal crashing out of the US Open in a stunning fourth-round upset on Monday. Tiafoe, who had only reached one major championship quarter-final in his career before, shattered Nadal's hopes of adding to his record collection of 22 Grand Slam singles titles with a 6-4, 4-6, 6-4, 6-3 victory.

A packed Arthur Ashe Stadium crowd roared in delight as the 24-year-old 22nd seed bombarded Nadal with 18 aces and 49 winners to seal victory in 3hr 34min.

The win sends Tiafoe into a last-eight showdown against Russian ninth seed Andrey Rublev on Wednesday.

"I don't even know what to say right now," Tiafoe said after his superb victory. "I'm beyond happy, I'm almost in tears.I can't believe it.

"He's definitely one of the greatest of all time. I played unbelievable tennis today but yeah - I really don't know what happened."

Tiafoe, the son of immigrants from Sierra Leone who began playing tennis as a four-year-old when his father worked as a live-in caretaker at a tennis facility in Maryland, had never gone further than the fourth round at the US Open in seven previous appearances.

"When I first came on the scene a lot of people had expectations of me of how I would do and stuff, but I wasn't ready for it. Mentally I wasn't mature enough for those moments," Tiafoe said.

"But these last couple of years I've been able to put my head down and develop."

Nadal paid tribute to Tiafoe's performance, and admitted he had struggled to cope with the American's tactic of moving him around the court.

- 'I played a bad match' -

"I played a bad match and he played a good match. At the end that's it, no?" Nadal said.

"Tennis is a sport of position a lot of