By Eryn Mathewson, CNN
(CNN) — The word “historic” has been thrown around a few times at this year’s US Open. But when Ben Shelton and Frances Tiafoe step onto Arthur Ashe Stadium on Friday, they’ll make a kind of history American men’s tennis hasn’t seen in more than half a century.
For the first time, two Black American men will face each other in a US Open men’s singles semifinal. And no matter who wins, a Black American man will advance to the final for the first time since Arthur Ashe made his last finals appearance there in 1972. He lost in five sets to Romania’s Ilie Năstase.
Ashe remains the only Black American man to win a grand slam singles title. He beat Tom Okker of the Netherlands in five sets to win the US Open in 1968 – which made Ashe the first Black man from any country to win a major singles title.
Ashe went on to also win the 1970 Australian Open and Wimbledon in 1975.
It’s a milestone that’s resonating with Black tennis players across generations – and the diaspora – who see in Shelton and Tiafoe not only how far the sport has come, but what could come next.
Just ask Michael Major Jr., a 20-year-old from Nassau in the Bahamas.
“I just think having guys like that, that are the same color as you and seem so down to earth,” Major told CNN Sports. “It makes the dream seem a little more attainable because they’re just normal people at the end of the day, just like me and you.”
The senior sports medicine major is a team captain on Howard University’s men’s tennis team and one of the top players in the Bahamas. His father introduced him to tennis when he was three, and in 2025 he represented the Bahamas in the Davis Cup.
Major says he isn’t surprised Shelton and Tiafoe have reached this stage. If anything, he thinks a moment like this has been a long time coming.
“So, Mal Washington in the ’90s was the last Black (American) man that was in the finals,” he said, referring to MaliVai Washington’s 1996 Wimbledon final.
“I wasn’t born in the ’90s, so I wasn’t able to watch that match. But we had people who we’d look up to, Black players, James Blake, Gaël Monfils (from France). You had the guys who had the potential, but to see it actually happen and not just ‘they could’ or ‘they might be able to,’ it’s a different feeling for sure. And I think it’s going to cause a lot of other African American players to really make that push.”
His teammate, 21-year-old Shawn Mitchell Yon from Queens in New York agrees.
“ We weren’t able to watch James Blake and all those others compete,” the three-time NYC PSAL Singles Champion told CNN Sports. “Just seeing the start of their (Shelton and Tiafoe) careers and to where they’re at now, to get to this level, this stage. We saw the dedication, the input that they put in, the changes that they made. It’s just honestly spectacular.”
Both Major and Yon predict the semifinal will be more exciting than the men’s final on Sunday.
A new era
Washington, now 57, respectfully disagrees.
“ No question, it’s going to be a huge moment. But as big as this semifinal, it’s going to be twice as big for the final,” he told CNN Sports. “And not just since Arthur Ashe. No American man has won a grand slam title since 2003: Andy Roddick. It’s that hard, not just for a Black athlete when there’s so few on tour. For any athlete, it’s really, really hard to win a major.”
Washington says watching Shelton and Tiafoe’s runs has been thrilling – not only because of the level play, but because one of them will take a distinction he’s ready to shed.
“It’s been 30 years since my Wimbledon final in 1996, and no Black American man has been in the finals of a major since,” he said. “So that is an accolade that I’m happy to relinquish.”
The former University of Michigan All-American remembers similar comparisons following him through Wimbledon three decades ago.
“There was a significant amount of hype around ‘the first since,’ the first Black (American) man since Arthur Ashe to be in the finals of a major. And it happened to be Wimbledon when Arthur won Wimbledon in 1975,” he told CNN. “ So those comparisons and questions were consistent and ongoing and it was an honor.”
Washington faced Richard Krajicek and lost 6-3, 6-4, 6-3.
“ I’ve always said that was the biggest moment of my career and I did not exceed the way I wanted to.”
He never competed again at Wimbledon and a persistent knee injury forced him to retire at the age of 30. During his career, he defeated star players like Andre Agassi, Boris Becker and Michael Chang. He was also a member of the 1996 US Olympic team and played on three Davis Cup teams.
Today, Washington plays some tennis, but spends most of his time running a real estate business and the MaliVai Washington Youth Foundation he launched in 1997. It teaches tennis, life skills and financial literacy to young people.
“ I look forward to the day – this is going to sound a little weird, I think – where we don’t have to say, ‘Oh, another Black player was in the finals of the US Open. Ooh, another first time since 2026 that a Black player has won a major,’” Washington said.
“I look forward to the day when, ‘Oh, Ben Shelton won another major. Frances Tiafoe won another major,’ and that’s the story.”
Getting to the future Washington imagines – where Black men, like Black women, reaching grand slam finals is no longer remarkable – will take more than one breakthrough.
The talented tenth of tennis
The number of Black men in grand slam finals is a short list.
France’s Jo-Wilfried Tsonga was the last Black man to reach a major singles final in 2008, where he lost to Novak Djokovic in the Australian Open.
In 1983, Yannick Noah of France defeated Mats Wilander to win the 1983 French Open, making him the last Black man to win a grand slam singles title.
Bryan Shelton, Ben Shelton’s father and former head coach at the University of Florida before he left the school to coach his son full time, competed in all four majors, with his deepest run coming in 1994 when he reached the round of 16 at Wimbledon. At one point, he even competed against and later coached Washington.
Today, tennis is still a predominantly White sport, especially at the professional level. According to the USTA’s 2026 US Tennis Participation Report, 3.7 million Black Americans played tennis at least once in 2025, a jump by more than 450,000 players from the previous year.
It also showed that those who identified as Hispanic or Latino accounted for 19% of participants in 2025, up from 18% in 2024, while Asian/Pacific Islander players remained steady at 11%.
Bridging the gap
Tennis development professionals like Ahsha Rolle have been thinking a lot about Shelton, Tiafoe and how to help more players participate and reach the highest levels of the sport. She’s the executive director of tennis at the New York Junior Tennis and Learning’s Cary Leeds Center and a former professional player, reaching a career-high No. 82 singles ranking.
“ I think it’s great for our kids to be able to see people that look like them on those big stages. Not just one, but also two of them,” she told CNN Sports. “ I think they oftentimes look up to the LeBron James of the world, the Patrick Mahomes. But hey, you know, tennis is a cool sport too, and maybe you all want to take up tennis one day. It’s a great career path.”
Rolle adds that players have more paths to the professional level of tennis these days and says Shelton and Tiafoe are good examples of two different ones.
“ Tiafoe was a high-level junior,” Rolle said. “He was the number one junior in the world actually, and then he went straight pro. And then you have Ben Shelton, who kind of went the college route. He played for the University of Florida (and) won NCAAs.”
Additionally, the American Tennis Association (ATA), the oldest African American sports organization in the US, hosts tournaments for young people who may not have played enough USTA tournaments or earned enough points to qualify for a national USTA tournament.
Despite these advancements, she says the biggest obstacles for Black players today include cost and education around what it takes to reach the top and what pathways are available, as well as access to quality coaches.
Yon credits Rolle and the coaching he received through the NYJTL for helping him play tennis at the college level, but he’d like to see more networks and spaces for Black players to support and mentor each other.
“If we all can come together, travel to tournaments, create a union or something like that, you know, that helps us with funding, helps us with finding more tournaments … we all can dominate.”
Major, his Howard teammate, says he’d like to see more investment in players who live outside of the US.
“I’d say academies could start looking at players in foreign countries. I think sometimes they could get a little narrow-minded and just look at players inside of United States. Because when it comes to like rating systems and ranking systems, I’d say in the United States it’s a bit inflated compared to the other countries. ”
The next generation
In a moment of serendipitous foreshadowing to Friday’s semifinal, Tiafoe was already involved in history when he played France’s Arthur Fils in the final of the Cincinnati Open – the first time two Black players met in an ATP Masters 1000 (the highest class behind the grand slams) final.
Ahead of that historic match – which Tiafoe lost 3-6, 6-1, 0-6 – the American reflected on the positive impact it would have on the next generation.
“That’s awesome. Great representation, a bunch of kids looking up to us and wanting to be in our position,” Tiafoe told organizers, according to the tournament. “That’s what it’s about. Hopefully, we’re going to continue to have more and more big finals like this, have people of color in them. I’m super pumped about it. It’s always nice to be part of history.”
For 9-year-old Crifton Fontenelle Jr., Shelton and Tiafoe are inspiring.
The New York City fifth grader has been playing tennis for several years, practicing twice a week with a coach and hitting with his sisters. On Friday, he plans to watch the semifinal with his family.
Knowing that one of them will advance to the US Open final, he says, is “really cool.”
“It’s special, important, and really exciting for me,” he told CNN Sports. “I hope that inspires other Black boys to be just like Tiafoe and Ben Shelton.”
Fontenelle Jr. plans to start playing tournaments soon. Someday, he wants to become a professional himself.
For now, though, he’s happy simply playing.
“I like the intensity, the sportsmanship and playing with my friends.”
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