Tiafoe Rallies Past Damm in US Open Thriller

Frances Tiafoe beat Martin Damm 6-4, 4-6, 3-6, 6-3, 6-4 in a first-round thriller that finished shortly before 1 a.m., recovering from two sets to one down on Louis Armstrong. The No. 11 seed's 38th win of 2026 kept the American men alive after a night that nearly ended in an all-U.S. upset at Flushing Meadows late Tuesday, per Tennis Majors.

Damm had just beaten Daniil Medvedev in Winston-Salem and cupped an ear at the New York crowd while leading two sets to one. Tiafoe had to dig out of that noise eleven days after losing the Cincinnati final to Arthur Fils, who was already out of this tournament after a first-round loss to Stefanos Tsitsipas.

How the match flipped

Damm blasted seven aces to take the second set, and Tiafoe double-faulted four times in the third alone (six for the match) before Damm needed four set points and seven deuces in the final game to go up 2-1, per the New York Post. Tiafoe answered in the last two sets, converting three of nine break chances and leaning on second-serve toughness while Damm's unforced errors piled up, including 16 in the fourth set alone according to The Mirror US.

"It was a crazy match. He had such a good serve. … In the last two sets, I just wanted to be tough. … I've won matches this year that I shouldn't have," Tiafoe said on court, per the Post. Among active players, only Novak Djokovic and Taylor Fritz have more ATP-level wins on American soil than Tiafoe's 126, Tennis Majors noted, and he has reached the US Open semifinals twice without getting past that round.

Sakamoto next

Round 2 is Japanese qualifier Rei Sakamoto, a 20-year-old next-gen name already through. The American Slam drought is still 23 years old, and Tiafoe's path now runs through another big server after nearly four hours against a countryman who refused to leave quietly.

Tiafoe has spent his career winning these matches on home hard courts. A five-set opener still taxes the legs before the second week ever starts, but surviving Damm's ear-cup act and Medvedev-slayer serve is the kind of scar tissue New York rewards. For more Flushing Meadows chaos already live, see Monfils winning on his 40th birthday and Musetti ending Fery's debut. Tiafoe's version ended just before 1 a.m. with the crowd still loud and a Round 2 date locked.