Dimitrov gives up, there will be an American in the US Open final!
It wasn't the ending we'd hoped for. Nor was it the one we expected.
Just as the duel between Tiafoe and Dimitrov was building in intensity and both players were playing at a very high level, despite a few notable errors, Grigor Dimitrov's body suddenly gave out.
The match was unreadable right to the end. The early part of the match was dominated by an overjoyed Tiafoe, buoyed by his fans and taking advantage of a Bulgarian who was clearly out of his depth (6-3, 4-2).
Back to his best tennis, Dimitrov then gradually raised his game, forcing the American to perform a few feats of his own. Very strong, the world no. 9 came back to within a set of each other, and the battle looked set to last all night.
In the end, however, this was not to be, as the 33-year-old suffered an injury while trying to recover from a break point deficit in the third set (6-3, 6-7, 4-3).
Visibly suffering from a left adductor muscle injury, he tried, but simply seemed to be in too much pain to continue, and to his dismay was forced to give up (6-3, 6-7, 6-3, 4-1 ab.), leaving Tiafoe to join Fritz in a 100% American semi-final.
An American will be in the final for the first time since 2006, when Federer defeated Roddick (6-2, 4-6, 7-5, 6-1).
