If you are left-handed, you best hope you don’t have to play Frances Tiafoe.

The 10th-seeded American extended his winning streak against lefties to 19 on Friday when he defeated Adrian Mannarino 4-6, 6-2, 6-3, 7-6(6) in the US Open third round. The last time Tiafoe lost to a lefty was in 2021, when he fell to Liam Broady in Eastbourne.

A semi-finalist last year at Flushing Meadows, Tiafoe was dialled-in on serve, firing 15 aces, to move past the 22nd seed Mannarino. After dropping the opening set, the 25-year-old found greater consistency from the baseline and attacked Mannarino’s flat backhand to improve to 2-1 in his Lexus ATP Head2Head series with the Frenchman.

“I played a loose game early in the first set and then after that, I thought I was a better player even though I lost the set, had a tonne of break points. I was definitely finding my rhythm, so I just used that as confidence and kept going,” Tiafoe said. “I was super mad that I gave back a break in the fourth [set] and made it real complicated for myself in the end. But I got it done and feels good to be in the fourth round.”

Tiafoe failed to convert his first six break points of the match before earning an advantage in the sixth game of the second set. Competing this fortnight at a career-high World No. 10 in the Pepperstone ATP Rankings, Tiafoe displayed impressive shotmaking and deft feel around the net to advance after two hours, 54 minutes. An entertaining fourth set featured four breaks of serve and both players eager to move forward and dictate points.

“He is so annoying to play,” Tiafoe said of Mannarino. “He’s just bunting the ball around, it’s so slow. You look at him like, ‘Man, what is he doing?’ But it is so effective, the ball stays so low. He makes you create and makes you want to feel like you have to overplay. He defends really well, so he is super tough and obviously has a great lefty serve. I’m happy the match is over and I won. He is super annoying to play.” 

Tiafoe, who is 13th in the Pepperstone ATP Live Race To Turin, is the first American since Andre Agassi (2002-05) to reach at least the fourth round in New York for four consecutive years. The three-time tour-level titlist will next have a first-time meeting with Australian Rinky Hijikata.

The Maryland native is the third American to reach the fourth round of their home Slam this week, joining 14th seed Tommy Paul and Ben Shelton. American No. 1 Taylor Fritz and wild card Michael Mmoh are also aiming to book their ticket to the round of 16.

Mannarino, 35, was aiming to reach the fourth round at a Slam for a fifth time. The World No. 35, who won the ATP 250 event in Newport in July, slipped to 0-21 against Top 10 players at majors.

Wild card Hijikata overcame Chinese star Zhang Zhizhen 6-3, 6-3, 4-6, 6-3 in a thrilling three-hour, 10-minute battle. The 22-year-old struck 54 winners to 36 unforced errors, advancing to his maiden major fourth round after a baseline slugfest in front of a raucous Court 17 crowd.

The 26-year-old Zhang, who was coming off back-to-back five-setters, including an upset against last year’s finalist Casper Ruud, needed six set points in the third set to extend the match. In the latter stages, the former University of North Carolina standout Hijikata appeared the fresher of the two as he stayed patient in rallies to pull away from Zhang.

The Sydney native is at a career-high No. 80 in the Pepperstone ATP Live Rankings, setting him up for his Top 100 debut following the season’s final major.

Jackson Withrow is into the third round of the men’s doubles event with partner Jackson Withrow. But no matter what happens on the court the rest of the fortnight, Withrow has already won.

On Monday, the former Texas A&M standout got engaged to his fiancée, Allie Sweeney. Fittingly, their story began at the US Open three years ago.

The 2020 tournament was played in a bubble because of the Covid-19 pandemic. Withrow met Sweeney when she was working at the player services desk.

“I wanted to focus on my tennis for a long time and had the goal coming here with a coach and ended up getting distracted a little bit by a girl at the player desk,” Withrow told ATPTour.com. “I was trying to figure out what her deal was… I got her number and ended up just texting a little bit here and there. But now that we’re here three years later, full circle, engaged this past Monday, it’s a pretty beautiful story.”

Jackson Withrow and Allie Sweeney” />
^{Photo Credit: Olivia Wenzel Photography}
Plans for Withrow’s engagement first began last November and in February, he asked Sweeney’s parents for their approval. But despite the urge to pop the question earlier, he held out until this week.

“I wanted New York to be special and New York’s always been a special place for me,” Withrow said. “It’s the first time I made a [major] quarter-final here with Jack [Sock] and this place has always felt like home. I wanted to bring that feeling towards us and what that meant for our relationship.

“It’s so tough, because you don’t want to be cliché and make it a tennis proposal. She played college tennis, and I wanted to at least make it separate from the tennis aspect. I wanted us to have our moment, but also for it to be a special place. New York is that special place for us.”

Withrow’s on-court success further complicated his plans. Lammons and Withrow won their third title of the season in Winston-Salem, so he arrived in New York relatively late. Monday, he finally got to the big moment.

“It was a funny story. I ended up blowing by the spot where I was supposed to do it. And the photographer texted me saying, ‘Oh, you missed it, come back.’ So now I was making this excuse to come back,” Withrow said. “Finally, the spot that we had this picture was on this rock right next to the water in Central Park and I originally missed the rock. I almost fell into the water. So I was like man, that would have made a pretty funny first start of how I was going to ask her to marry me.”

After the best possible start to the week, Lammons is excited to see what the rest of his US Open holds.

“I was joking about it yesterday with our families and stuff. I was like, ‘Man, if we were to go deep here, have a semis or even maybe hoist the trophy, I may have to put the engagement on the backburner as best moments of being in New York,’” Withrow joked. “But at the end of the day, I think there’s things that you get to appreciate and I’ve gotten to appreciate tennis more, because Allie has been such a big part of my tennis.

“I’ve never really dated a tennis girl. And I always kind of wanted to separate the two and now that she’s been involved with my tennis, she gets on court with me, she’s amazing with that stuff. I really trust her with my game and being able to kind of use her as a person that I kind of really trust. And she has been amazing.”

Lammons and Withrow will next play top seeds Wesley Koolhof and Neal Skupski. In the Winston-Salem final, the Americans defeated Skupski and Lloyd Glasspool. Although they have tried not to look at the Pepperstone ATP Live Doubles Teams Rankings, they are currently in 10th place and making a push to qualify for the Nitto ATP Finals for the first time.

“Now that we feel like we’ve been a staple on the tour this year and have our proven results, we feel confident,” Withrow said. “And we’re just trying to ride the wave a little bit.”

Jack Sock’s career came to a close on Thursday at the US Open, where he lost his first-round men’s doubles match with John Isner and opening mixed doubles match with Coco Gauff.

It has been 13 years since Sock played his first US Open as a professional in 2010 and the American has accomplished plenty since. To honour Sock, ATPTour.com looks at five notable stats from his illustrious career.

Jack Reached The Top 10 Singles & Doubles
Sock cracked the Top 10 in both the Pepperstone ATP Rankings and the Pepperstone ATP Doubles Rankings. In November 2017 he reached a career-high World No. 8 in singles and in September 2018 he ascended to World No. 2 in doubles.

The Nebraska-native spent several weeks in the Top 20 of both disciplines simultaneously. The American also earned the distinction of finishing the 2017 season as the No. 1 player from his country.

American Won An ATP Masters 1000 Title To Qualify For Nitto ATP Finals
The defining moment of Sock’s singles career came at the end of 2017. He entered the Rolex Paris Masters, the season’s final ATP Masters 1000 tournament, at 24th in the Pepperstone ATP Live Race To London (the Nitto ATP Finals was played in London at the time).

Sock, the 16th seed in the tournament, trailed Kyle Edmund 1-5 in the deciding set of his first match of the week. After surviving that close encounter, he went on to win his first title at the level, ousting Lucas Pouille, Fernando Verdasco, Julien Benneteau and Filip Krajinovic for the crown. With his victory, he qualified for the Nitto ATP Finals, where he defeated Marin Cilic and Alexander Zverev to qualify for the semi-finals.

He Won Four Major Doubles Championships
Sock earned four major doubles titles as a professional in his career. In 2014, he emerged victorious at Wimbledon with Vasek Pospisil and in 2018 he lifted trophies at SW19 and Flushing Meadows with Mike Bryan. The American also claimed mixed doubles glory with Melanie Oudin at the 2011 US Open.

Sock Captured Two Olympic Medals
The American suffered a first-round exit in singles at the 2016 Rio de Janeiro Olympics, but finished with one of the most impressive performances of the entire event. Sock partnered Bethanie Mattek-Sands to the gold medal in mixed doubles and Steve Johnson to the bronze medal in men’s doubles. He was the only tennis player to earn multiple medals at the event. 

He Ended Roger Federer’s Career
For the rest of his life, Sock will be able to tell his friends and family that he defeated Roger Federer in the Swiss’ final match. At the 2022 Laver Cup, Sock and Team World partner Frances Tiafoe defeated Team Europe’s Federer and Rafael Nadal 4-6, 7-6(2), 11-9.

Sock excelled in doubles at Laver Cup, where he tallied a 9-3 record across four editions of the event. His victories came against teams including Federer, Nadal, Novak Djokovic and Andy Murray.

Daniil Medvedev will go to bed in the wee hours of Friday morning glad that he navigated through a late-night test in the US Open second round.

The third seed defeated Australian Christopher O’Connell 6-2, 6-2, 6-7(6), 6-2 to capture his 250th hard-court victory and reach the third round of the season’s final major, where he was crowned champion in 2021. Medvedev had two match points at 6/4 in the third-set tie-break before the 29-year-old O’Connell won four consecutive points, two of which were double faults from the World No. 3.

Aiming for his second major title this fortnight, Medvedev was nearly at his best in the opening two sets, displaying all-court coverage and pinning O’Connell with depth on his groundstrokes. Medvedev did not give up a point behind his first serve until 4-1, 40/15 in the second set. But a third-set surge from the Sydney native forced the World No. 3 to regain focus and stay on court until 1:10 a.m. to reach the third round.

“Tough match. I don’t know why, but at one moment in the match he decided to play better,” joked Medvedev in his on-court interview. “I played the same from the first point to the last. It became much tougher for me, so I’m happy that I was able to still hang in there. I had opportunities in the third set, and I managed to use them in the fourth.”

O’Connell recovered from a break down in the third set by taking earlier cuts at the ball and hitting less slice than he did in the first two sets. He also moved forward more frequently to put pressure on Medvedev, implementing several serve-and-volleys.

The 27-year-old Medvedev quickly responded to a frustrating end to the third set, reverting to consistency from the baseline to avoid any further drama on Louis Armstrong Stadium. After three hours, three minutes, Medvedev converted his fourth match point to improve to 3-0 in his Lexus ATP Head2Head series with World No. 69 O’Connell, who was aiming to reach the third round of a major for the second time this year (Wimbledon).

“When you get frustrated, you never know. You could lose your concentration and the match could become much tougher, or like today, I felt like maybe it helped me a little bit,” Medvedev said. “In general, I felt like it was a great match to play, honestly.”

Putting on a show 🤩 @DaniilMedwed@usopen | #USOpwn

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— ATP Tour (@atptour) September 1, 2023

Pursuing a second major title this fortnight, Medvedev will next look to end Sebastian Baez’s 12-match winning streak in their first meeting.

Medvedev, who is a 20-time tour-level titlist, boasts a 51-11 match record this season, claiming four of his five trophies this year on hard courts. He is the 15th active player to record 250 career hard-court wins (tour-level) and the first under age 30.

Baez advanced after Brazilian qualifier Felipe Meligeni Alves retired with the Argentine leading 6-7(7), 6-4, 6-4. At a career-high No. 27 in the Pepperstone ATP Live Rankings, the 22-year-old Baez is into the third round of a major for the first time. He arrived in New York following two consecutive tour-level titles: Kitzbühel and Winston-Salem.

Everything was going well for Benjamin Bonzi until it wasn’t.

The Frenchman reached a career-high No. 42 in the Pepperstone ATP Rankings this February after making his first ATP Tour final in Pune. He then advanced to another championship clash in Marseille, but everything changed two months later.

At the Rolex Monte-Carlo Masters, Bonzi was playing Stefanos Tsitsipas when disaster struck. “I felt a big flash in the wrist,” while hitting a backhand, he told ATPTour.com

Right away, Bonzi knew he would be out for an extended period of time. The native of Nimes, France had suffered a left wrist injury and retired in the first set of the match. He missed the rest of the clay-court season.

“I did six weeks of immobilisation on the wrist. You’re pretty excited to take things off and to go back on the court. But you don’t really know when you’re going to be really ready to play your game and to feel confident again,” Bonzi said. “Maybe I wasn’t expecting to be ready after this long time.”

Bonzi is currently in the third round of the US Open and will play Swiss lefty Dominic Stricker for a place in the Round of 16. But reaching this point has been far from easy.

“I had two weeks when I could not do training, physically and everything. And then I tried to play again even with the wrist immobilised. I was doing forehands and some serves, trying to just be a tennis player without the left arm,” Bonzi said. “It was a long time because you could not train how you wanted, you could not be 100 per cent fit and you just had to be patient.”

How could he hit serves with his left arm in a sling?

“It was crazy. I was looking like a penguin trying to throw the ball,” Bonzi said, cracking a laugh. “It was not perfect. It was maybe five or 10 serves per day, but it was not good to see.”

Ahead of Roland Garros, Bonzi was able to remove the sling and start doing what he loves again.

“Free. I felt free. It was a long time without moving my hand, my arm, my elbow and everything,” Bonzi said. “Unfortunately, I was not ready in time to play the tournament. When you have to put the jacket with a special sling because your elbow is blocked, when you take it off it’s a great feeling.”

Bonzi returned during the grass-court season, losing the first six matches of his comeback and failing to win a set in any of those encounters. It was a stark contrast to the form he had shown at the beginning of the year.

“To come back, you have to build everything again, everything — the confidence, the way you play on court, and to get the rhythm again on the tennis court. And it’s pretty difficult actually,” Bonzi said. “You never know when physically you will be 100 per cent fit or if you’re going to feel something again in the wrist or if you just change your feeling [hitting the ball]. Maybe two or three per cent could be a big difference when you feel the ball.”

Now Bonzi is back on track. Not long after struggling to play the sport, the Frenchman has an opportunity to reach the fourth round at a major for the first time.

“After injuries you never know. It’s going to be maybe one good day, one bad day. You don’t know. I started to build something again. I felt that it was better. But you don’t know,” Bonzi said. “There are only good players here. It’s now two victories and the confidence is way higher than four days ago.”

Two years ago, Jakub Mensik and his coach, Tomas Josefus, were in New York for the first time. Mensik qualified for the US Open boys’ singles event and reached the third round of the main draw. It was an invaluable experience, but one off-court memory sticks out.

Josefus remembers watching with his charge on television an 18-year-old Carlos Alcaraz upset Stefanos Tsitsipas in a final-set tie-break.

“Carlos, at that moment, he was only 18, a little bit older than Jakub,” Josefus recalled. “We said, ‘Wow, he’s so good in this age.’”

On Friday Mensik turns 18 and it is the Czech making waves at Flushing Meadows. The teen will play No. 1 American Taylor Fritz for a place in the fourth round of the US Open. For those who have not seen him play before, expect the 6’4” Czech to come out firing.

“I’m very tall. I have a little bit [of an] advantage over other guys,” Mensik said. “So with my big serve and also with my aggressive position on the court, I feel very comfortable.”

Josefus, who first met Mensik when he was eight, concurred with his player’s evaluation.

“Jakub is an aggressive baseliner for sure. His game style is really aggressive and is trying to put pressure on his opponent with taking time away. That’s probably the signature of Jakub’s game,” Josefus said. “He has a big serve and big return. In today’s tennis, and in today’s game, zero to four shot rallies, especially here on hard courts in the U.S. are a minimum 60, maybe sometimes 70 per cent of all points. So definitely a big serve and big return is a big strength of Jakub’s game.”

According to Josefus, Mensik did not always play such an attacking style.

“When he played the Under-14s category, he played not so aggressive. He stayed more on the baseline, sometimes only pushing and waiting on errors from the opponent’s side. Today’s tennis, it’s about being aggressive, you have to be very aggressive,” Josefus said. “It’s not about unforced errors, but it’s about forced errors in today’s game. So the majority of the points in tennis are forced errors. So for that reason, you have to be aggressive.”

From eight until nearly 14, Josefus was part of a trio of coaches who worked with Mensik in Prostejov. Since then, Josefus has been his player’s main coach. From a young age, he has seen how quickly Mensik learns.

“I think his motor learning is very fast. So if I compare it with other players, especially in this age, Jakub is learning very fast. He is a very intelligent guy,” Josefus said. “These days we are working a lot with data and numbers so of course, it’s a long pathway. But definitely when I saw him for the first time, he was learning fast, new movements, new skills.”

Some of Mensik’s most valuable learning experiences have come in two separate training weeks with 23-time major champion Novak Djokovic. Ironically, Josefus said Mensik’s signature shot is his counter-attacking backhand from an open stance, just like the Serbian.

“Imagine if you are only 16 and you got the chance to spend — and for me also as his coach — some time directly with Novak and with the whole team. It’s a big, big challenge and a big, big privilege for us,” Josefus said. “It opened our eyes in many ways. And he helped him a lot because if he’s on court with anybody else, he knows that Nole is the better or bigger guy. So he has no problem with that.”

Josefus explained that they learned from Djokovic how important details are. There are so many different things that go into becoming the best tennis player possible.

“It’s not only about the forehands and backhands and serves and returns, but it’s about the food. It’s about the specific conditioning, it’s about the opponent scouting, it’s about the player development,” Josefus said. “In data you are able to see the truth about your game.”

According to Josefus, Djokovic’s team has been kind enough to offer advice even outside of those training weeks. Josefus also now uses the same analytics team that assists the Serbian so that the Czechs can hone in on the details.

That is a big part of what has allowed Mensik, the 2022 Australian Open boys’ singles finalist, to make his breakthrough in New York. The player he defeated in the second round, Titouan Droguet, had played him twice before. The Frenchman was impressed by the improvement Mensik had made.

“It was really not this kind of match. He improved a lot his game,” Droguet said. “He’s very young and in the rankings he’s moving up every month. I don’t see any limit for him in the future to be a great player.”