A historic all-American semifinal at Arthur Ashe ended with Ben Shelton booking his place in the US Open final after beating Frances Tiafoe in four sets. But after a three-hour, 17-minute battle, Tiafoe was left to process a result that was clearly a tough one to take.

“It’s a tough one. It’s hard. It’s been a great season for me, but this one is tough. We wanted to win this one,” the American said in his post-match interview.

And it made sense why the loss stung. Tiafoe’s semifinal had actually started on the right note before Shelton slowly flipped the script. At 4-4 in the opening set, Shelton handed his opponent an opening with a double fault, and Tiafoe made the most of it before serving out the set 6-4.

But that moment became the last time Tiafoe had any control in the match.

The second set changed everything, as Shelton raised his level and started putting Tiafoe under pressure. Tiafoe could not create the same openings, while Shelton’s serve kept pushing him further behind.

In the third set, Tiafoe faced 7 deuces at 3-5 before another mistake finally handed Shelton the set. From there, Tiafoe kept fighting, but simply could not find his way back into control.

The fourth set gave Tiafoe another chance, but Shelton kept answering whenever the pressure started building. At 5-6, Tiafoe saved one match point before double-faulting on the next, ending another painful semifinal run.

Tiafoe added, “We wanted to win this one. You know, it’s just the last couple of weeks; it’s been great weeks, but haven’t been able to finish.” That made this defeat even harder, because Tiafoe had now lost all 3 of his US Open semifinals.

Moments after the match, cameras caught him covering his face with a towel inside the players’ tunnel. The emotion became too much to carry after another chance at the final had slipped away.

But only days earlier, Tiafoe was seen comforting a tearful Alex Michelsen after their quarterfinal match.

Tiafoe had told Michelsen, “Brother, you’re going to be here many more times and I’m going to be watching you from home when you achieve it.”

Now, those words may be exactly what Tiafoe needs to remember after a painful night.

Nevertheless, Tiafoe made his goal clear: “I want to do the thing, man. I want to be a Grand Slam champion one day and just get back to the drawing board and keep working.”

Ben Shelton outplayed Big Foe with his powerful serve

What made Shelton’s win so impressive was how much better he served when Tiafoe needed answers. Shelton landed 75% of his first serves, compared with only 57% for Tiafoe.

“He served really well tonight, which made it really tough for me,” Tiafoe admitted after watching his chances disappear.

“I did not serve great. So I was just trying to hang in there on my service games, but ultimately we didn’t say much.”

But the longer the match continued, the more Shelton started finding his rhythm from everywhere.

“He’s hanging tough in rallies; he is not spraying as much,” Tiafoe said, praising Shelton’s growing control.

“He is starting to get more solid, so his game is starting to get more polished.”

At 5-4 in the fourth, Shelton missed four backhands, but Tiafoe could not turn that opening into another chance.

That moment summed up Tiafoe’s night, as opportunities appeared but never stayed around for long.

“For me, even though I have won a lot of matches, something that is lacking for me is my serve percentage-wise,” he said. “I was working way too hard on my serve,” Tiafoe added, knowing that part must improve.

Now, he heads toward Tokyo on September 30, while another Grand Slam dream waits for another year.