NEW YORK — This wasn’t the way Frances Tiafoe wanted Tuesday afternoon to go on Arthur Ashe Stadium.

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Or maybe it was everything he dreamed of.

With Alex Michelsen, the big-serving 21-year-old Californian, on the verge of the biggest win of his career, Tiafoe grabbed hold of a lifeline from a wobbling opponent and improbably climbed all the way back from two sets and 5-3 down to win 5-7, 3-6, 7-5, 6-3, 7-6(10-6) and reach the U.S. Open semifinals.

For more than two hours and nearly three sets, Tiafoe was one of the worst versions of his tennis self. In the second set, he landed just 35 percent of his first serves, and Michelsen was mostly crushing him on his second serves. For a player who rises for his home Grand Slam and puts on a show like few others, it was awkward.

But after playing something close to lights-out tennis, as he had done all tournament, Michelsen felt the moment when he was on the edge of the last four. Up 7-5, 6-3, 5-4, he produced two double faults to start the game that could have gotten him into the tennis promised land.

He didn’t make a single first serve in it. Tiafoe broke. Then he held serve. Then he broke again, to make it a two-sets-to-one deficit.

And then the U.S. Open became Tiafoe’s party once more. He has now made the semifinals three times since 2022, even after spending so much of a frustrating afternoon searching for the service box.

At the same time, what was almost Michelsen’s fifth consecutive straight-sets win of the tournament turned into every tennis player’s nightmare.

Before Tiafoe, no one had been able to solve the problems Michelsen has been causing everyone on the opposite side of the net to him the past 10 days.

Michelsen, the world No. 46, has had some success in Grand Slams before, making the fourth round of the Australian Open last year. Everyone in the game speaks highly of his weapons, especially his serve, and his style of big-ball tennis that can pin opponents behind the baseline when he gets on the offensive.

But even he concedes he is far from a finished product, especially when it comes to moving his long-limbed, 6-foot-4 inch frame around a tennis court.

He’s far from what he described as the “giraffe on ice” he was a couple years ago, but he insists he has a long way to go.

Fortunately for him, early on Tiafoe didn’t come close to exploiting that shortcoming Tuesday. He was too busy trying to get something, or really anything, out of his serve.

For much of the afternoon, he was winning less than 60 percent of the points on his first serve, and Michelsen was putting more than 80 percent of those first serves back in the court.

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Meanwhile, Michelsen was having the opposite experience, letting his long levers create the easy power that has been kryptonite for each of his opponents. He got a nice first-round matchup with Federico Cinà, a 19-year-old qualifier.

But then he registered a statement win in the second round, when he thumped compatriot Brandon Nakashima, one of the most in-form players in the sport, in straight sets.

By ranking, he was on his way to registering upsets in his next three matches, beating Daniel Mérida of Spain, Tomás Martín Etcheverry of Argentina and then Tiafoe. It just hadn’t looked that way. Michelsen had played every match like a favorite.

Until he didn’t. There are wobbles in tennis, and then there is what happened to Michelsen Tuesday afternoon. There was a hint of it when he served at 4-3 in the third set. He floated a sliced backhand long and let Tiafoe jump on a second serve and send him running. Improbably, Tiafoe seemed on the verge of clawing his way back into the match.

But Michelsen cracked an unreturnable serve, and then an ace, and then a big forehand winner to get the game back to deuce. Two big serves later, he was a game away from the last four.

He chugged some water and his sports drink on the next changeover, toweled off, then went back to work.

Then the trouble really started. When Michelsen sent a forehand long over the baseline to give Tiafoe the game and a lifeline, Tiafoe bent at his knees and let out a roar that bounced around the concrete stadium.

For the next 75 minutes, it was all Tiafoe, the electric crowd favorite suddenly rediscovering his serve, whipping his forehand and jetting all over the court like a roadrunner.

And then, he stalled. Finally even after three-and-a-half hours, he fell 3-0 behind in the final set. The confident version of Michelsen returned. And then so did the wobbly version.

Serving at 3-1, 15-30, Michelsen twisted a forehand way off the court. Two points later, with Tiafoe pinned in his forehand corner, Michelsen hit an open forehand back at him instead of into the open court.

Tiafoe revved once more. This time he didn’t stop. Twice two points from defeat when serving down 5-4, he cracked three aces in four points. Fifth set, 5-5. Why stop there?

Two games later, they headed into the match tiebreak. First to 10 points for a spot in the final four. Tiafoe was solid for the first 15 of them, to open up a 9-6 lead. Then he cracked a pass down the line to end it, and sprinted forward — not to his box, but to Michelsen, who was weeping in his arms.

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This article originally appeared in The Athletic.

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