It started on familiar ground. Fritz looked confident at first, breaking Tiafoe’s first service game. But then things turned around: Tiafoe broke back and took his first set from Fritz in over two years, since Montreal 2022.

Many players complain that Arthur Ashe Stadium takes sides. At first, the crowd was on Tiafoe’s side. That’s no surprise, since he’s both a charming personality and someone who knows how to get a crowd going. Many of the raucous Fritz fans — never more creative than chanting “Let’s go Taylor” — were men dressed in pastels, with the pink faces of Honey Deuces. But as often happens at Ashe, Tiafoe’s early lead gave the crowd more reason to cheer for Fritz. He may have entered the match as the favorite, but now, down a set, he was the underdog.

The second set consisted mainly of quick and comfortable holds, an acknowledgement that this would be a long match. Almost all of their previous matches had ended in straight sets against Fritz; when Tiafoe won the first, it signaled that tonight would be different. When he wins a good point, Tiafoe switches his racket to his left hand so he can shake the fist of his right hand. Tiafoe did a lot of fist shaking that night. The crowd loved it.

Ashe’s energy rose at the end of the second set, which Fritz eventually won. After two hours, Tiafoe led 2-1. The last time Tiafoe won two sets from Fritz? Their first meeting in Indian Wells in 2016—the only time Tiafoe has won.

The fourth set continued to see the level of play rise. In a long rally, Tiafoe deployed his entire arsenal: heavy topspin forehands, sudden fast cross-court backhands, a well-camouflaged slice for good measure. The change of pace did not faze Fritz, who remained steady and came through in that 31-stroke rally, outpacing Tiafoe to hit a winning shot.

After Fritz won the fourth set, I couldn’t help but think about how the two players contrast in body types. Fritz is tall and lanky, drawing his strength from the power in his long torso; Tiafoe, perhaps the most muscular player on tour, draws his strength from his biceps. Even their kits were a contrast: Fritz wore a black-and-white Boss outfit, with a headband that Cobra Kai and a Chipotle patch on his sleeve; Tiafoe in his lilac Nike tank top, which he changed constantly, leaving a messy pile of sweaty tank tops next to his workbench.

There was a time when American men were all built the same: extremely tall, extremely pale, and only able to serve. Men like John Isner and Sam Querrey, and more recently Riley Opelka. They could barely move around the court, giving the US a reputation for producing “serve bots.” Even the average tennis watcher could understand that these men were not fun to watch.

Friday showed just how far American men’s tennis has come. Perhaps Fritz-Tiafoe didn’t quite reach the heights of the US Open battles between Pete Sampras and Michael Chang, once the top two ranked players in the world. But here was a duel between two starkly different players, each just a set away from reaching the final match of the year’s final major. Even my apathy toward national pride melted a little as I watched Fritz and Tiafoe make it to the fifth round.