NEW YORK -- Frances Tiafoe kept coming back until he had reached his third US Open semifinal, beating Alex Michelsen 5-7, 3-6, 7-5, 6-3, 7-6 (10-6) on Tuesday.
Tiafoe, who lost the first two sets and then trailed 3-0 in the fifth, finally ended the match in 4 hours, 38 minutes. He then jogged over to the other side of the net, where Michelsen cried on his shoulder after a devastating end to his first career major quarterfinal.
"I really like Alex. I really, really do, and I just wanted to come up there and just dap him up," Tiafoe said. "I didn't think it was going to be as long as it was, but I understand the moment. He was definitely crying on my shoulders. Yeah, we just had some words for each other, and that was it."
Michelsen, 22, said he didn't speak much when they met at the net.
"I was trying to keep it together and I didn't do a good job of that," Michelsen said. "He was saying a lot of nice personal things. 'You'll be there. When I'm older, you're going to be here, and we're going to play it again in this type of circumstance.' All that good stuff. He's a great guy for consoling me in that moment."
It was the first comeback from two sets down in a US Open men's quarterfinal since Roger Federer did so against Gael Monfils in 2014. The last US Open men's quarterfinal to go to a deciding set tiebreak was in 2019 and also featured Monfils, against Matteo Berrettini.
Tiafoe said his performance to start the match was slow and flat.
"It wasn't good, let's put it that way. It wasn't good," he said. "Three out of five is a blessing, because you have time to get it together. I definitely waited for the last minute."
The No. 11-seeded Tiafoe, who reached the final four in 2022 and 2024, awaits the winner of the late match between defending champion Carlos Alcaraz and No. 8 Ben Shelton, who will try to guarantee the Americans have someone in the final Sunday as they seek their first men's Grand Slam title since 2003.
Tiafoe planned to watch some of it.
"I'm going to enjoy this one, though. Let's go!" he told the crowd in Arthur Ashe Stadium.
Tiafoe lost to Alcaraz in 2022, when the Spaniard won his first of seven Grand Slam titles. Tiafoe lost to fellow American Taylor Fritz two years later, when the U.S. came closest to ending its men's drought that dates to Andy Roddick's title in Flushing Meadows.
It certainly didn't appear Tiafoe would be going back this time, after Michelsen continued his dominant run through his breakout tournament. He was the only man who hadn't dropped a set, and he served to win the match with a 5-4 lead in the third. He got off to a nervous start with consecutive double faults, and Tiafoe eventually broke when Michelsen couldn't put away a shot at the net.
"I feel the first three sets I was on top of him. I feel like he didn't really -- he wasn't playing like Frances. Then I kind of let him back in at 5-4," Michelsen said. "Then after that, he was playing like Frances does on Ashe. After that, it was a dogfight."
Tiafoe, who had made two previous comebacks after dropping the first two sets, was still in plenty of trouble. Michelsen broke early in the fifth en route to his 3-0 lead, with Tiafoe spiking his racket to the court in frustration at one point.
But he recovered again and eventually took control by winning three straight points in the match tiebreaker for a 7-4 lead, then hitting an ace at 135 mph after Michelsen got the next two.
Tiafoe joined Andre Agassi as the only American men to reach three US Open semifinals in this century and will return to the top 10 for the first time in three years in the next rankings. All three of Tiafoe's major semifinal appearances have come at Flushing Meadows.
Michelsen, ranked No. 46, fell to 0-6 in matches that go to a fifth set.
ESPN Research and The Associated Press contributed to this report.
