By Amy Tennery
NEW YORK (Reuters) – American Frances Tiafoe reached the quarter-finals of the U.S. Open for a third successive year on Sunday after beating Novak Djokovic’s conqueror Alexei Popyrin 6-4 7-6(3) 2-6 6-3.
Tiafoe is aiming to snap a 21-year U.S. drought in the men’s majors but he had to dig deep to hold off the hard-hitting Popyrin.
The Australian was fresh off the biggest win of his career after beating defending champion Djokovic in the third round and while he fired down 24 aces he also coughed up nine double faults and had some costly unforced errors.
Tiafoe next plays Bulgarian ninth seed Grigor Dimitrov in the quarter-finals.
(Reporting by Amy Tennery in New York; Editing by Peter Rutherford)
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