At the US Open, American men finally raise a racket

At long last, an American man will be in the singles final this weekend in a “major” tennis tournament.

There was a time when that sentence above would be as newsworthy as writing that the sun appears to rise in the East every morning. No longer. Now, it’s as rare as a cicada emergence.

This year’s American cicadas are 26-year-olds Taylor Fritz and Frances Tiafoe, who both won quarterfinal matches on Sept. 3 to advance to a semifinal showdown against each other at the U.S. Open in New York. The winner, whoever he is, will be the first American in a major tourney final since — get this — Andy Roddick took Roger Federer to a 14-16 fifth set back in 2009. Yes, 15 years

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