Frances Tiafoe and Alex Michelsen battled for four hours and 38 minutes on Arthur Ashe, giving one of the wildest all-American duels in this year’s US Open. But social chatter highlighted how one-sided the crowd support felt toward eventual winner Tiafoe, despite both players being Americans and Michelsen being the superior player for the first half of the day. 

The unseeded Michelsen came out on top in the first two sets, 7-5, 6-3, and looked well on his way to a maiden Grand Slam semifinal. In the third, serving at 5-4 for the match, he opened with two double faults, recovered to deuce, but was broken as Tiafoe clawed his way back into the set and eventually took it.

As the match dragged on, the 22-year-old became visibly frustrated, slamming a ball onto the court and his towel into a bucket after Tiafoe broke him again to close out the fourth set 6-3 and force a decider.

Michelsen has never won a five-set match in five previous career attempts. Even after producing some of his best tennis of the tournament, the crowd rarely gave him anything back, something plenty of fans found uncomfortable to watch.

That pattern was acknowledged by No. 11 seed Tiafoe himself in his post-match interview.

“Everyone was sleeping the first couple of hours. I was like, what’s going on? I was asleep with y’all and then as it went along the energy was incredible,” Tiafoe said. “It is always. Thank you. Obviously, two Americans, but you guys are really for me, and I really appreciate that.”

For Tiafoe, the crowd support only fueled him to script the five-set comeback. But the situation itself drew online criticism. One reaction on X summed up the confusion directly. 

“Isn’t Michelsen American too? Why’s the crowd only cheering Tiafoe? That sucks tbh,” one fan wrote, a sentiment echoed across social media as the match wore on.

“Tennis like that. They don’t root for underdogs,” one wrote in the comments under the initial post, while another added, “US Open crowds classically hate underdogs…it’s annoying.”

Fans framed it as simply how tennis crowds behave rather than anything specific to this match. But naturally, there was more discourse around this and Tiafoe’s popularity.

“Generally Tiafoe is a fan favorite,” wrote another fan, pointing to Tiafoe’s standing built over years on tour. “They like his swagg type shoo. Plus his consistency in this tourney historically. He is a fan fave.”

Another seconded the sentiment, writing, “Because Tiafoe is a seasoned veteran and Michelsen is unknown to anyone outside of tennis.”

A day earlier, the women’s draw also saw two Americans going head-to-head, with Iva Jovic losing 6-1, 6-4 to Coco Gauff in the fourth round. The 2023 US Open champion and fourth seed was backed by a raucous Arthur Ashe crowd in the thrilling match.

One fan used that example to identify a potential pattern, writing, “Girls side, American Jovic never got support either. Crowd is always for whoever has been flamboyant, outspoken, big social media presence, dresses crazy, whatever.”

The energy of the stands only seemed to grow louder when Tiafoe clawed back into the match, with Michelsen looking to have to conjure up his own motivation with little to no sound from the stands in his better moments.

Unfortunately for Michelsen, it was not to be on the day. He was in tears after the  5-7, 3-6, 7-5, 6-3, 7-6 (6) loss, and Tiafoe, who advanced to his third US Open semifinal, consoled him on the court