Hey, ESPN: U.S. Open Tennis Doesn’t Need Contrived Racial Storyline To Be Compelling

This article was written by Karen Crouse and published on Sport & State, a new media company founded by Clay Travis that is built around sports, culture, original voices, and live conversation.

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Sometimes a tennis match is just a tennis match, even when it features two Americans squaring off for a spot in the final of the U.S. Open. Sadly, the scouting report on ESPN never changes.

Give it the smallest of openings and the Worldwide Leader In Sports will pull back its racket for a bold strike and miss the mark by a mile.

Ahead of the men’s semifinal Friday featuring the rocket-serving Ben Shelton and the resilient Frances Tiafoe, an ESPN account on X, ESPN Insights, posted to its 1.7 million followers that the winner will become the first Black American man to reach a US Open final since Arthur Ashe in 1972 and the first Black American man to reach any major final since MaliVai Washington at Wimbledon in 1996.

The winner of Tiafoe vs. Shelton will make history ✍️

???? First Black American man to reach a US Open Final since Arthur Ashe (1972)

????First Black American man to reach any major final since MaliVai Washington (1996 Wimbledon) pic.twitter.com/IRE4boYOlQ

— ESPN Insights (@ESPNInsights) September 9, 2026

It was a classic ESPN take, equally jingoistic and identity-obsessed. Its programming, by which I mean the beliefs or values it is spreading, crumbles when subjected to critical analysis. Why not celebrate the strides the sport has made since Ashe’s trailblazing days by posting that Shelton, at No. 9, and Tiafoe, at No. 12, are among four players of color in the top 12 of the ATP rankings? The others, for anyone who’s interested, are Canada’s Felix Auger–Aliassime (4) and France’s Arthur Fils (11).

That’s progress. So is the fact that a match of import featuring two Black players isn’t blue-moon rare anymore. Last month’s final in Cincinnati, a Masters 1000 event, featured Tiafoe and Fils, the eventual winner.

To perpetuate the idea that Black players are marginalized unicorns in American tennis is to spit on the successes of Venus and Serena Williams, Sloane Stephens, Madison Keys and Coco Gauff, all of whom have graced at least one U.S. Open women’s singles final – and combined for 11 titles – since 1999.

And how about the all-court queen, Taylor Townsend, who can complete a career Grand Slam in doubles if she and partner Katerina Siniaková prevail in Friday’s final against Robin Montgomery and Ashlyn Krueger? Now, that would be historic. Only 18 women have pulled off that feat in the Open era.

But you do you, ESPN. Since tenuous takes on history are its specialty, I offer its tennis crew a few other scintillating facts to spray all over its men’s semifinals telecast. If Shelton wins, he will become the first men’s player who was born on a Wednesday to grace the U.S. Open final since Marin Cilic in 2014. It’s true. I looked it up.

Shelton and Tiafoe are also the second headband-wearing Americans to play each other in the final four of a U.S. Open, after Tiafoe and Taylor Fritz in a 2024 semifinal.

In Friday’s other semifinal, Karen Khachanov can become the first Karen to reach a men’s or women’s U.S. Open final with a victory over Alexander Zverev, who advanced to all four major singles semifinals this year,  only the ninth man in the Open era to complete such a calendar sweep.  Zverev can become the first known Type 1 diabetic to win the men’s U.S. Open title. He lost to Dominic Thiem in the 2020 final.

Zverev’s diabetes is no laughing matter, and the fact that he is open about it has no doubt gone a long way towards normalizing what can be an isolating condition. But don’t let the other silly stretches at history distract from the power, grit, grace, athleticism and sportsmanship that will be on display. The semifinals can stand on their own merits. No need to come up with contrived reasons to make them compelling.

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