BY  BRIAN MAHONEY

NEW YORK (AP) — A point away from losing the second set with his opponent serving, Frances Tiafoe looked at a positive.

At least, he figured, he would be able to change out of his sweaty shirt and sneakers.

A couple minutes later, he hadn’t changed his clothes. He had changed around the match.

Tiafoe rallied to steal the second set and went on to earn his way back to the U.S. Open quarterfinals for the third straight year, beating Alexei Popyrin 6-4, 7-6 (3), 2-6, 6-3 on Sunday night.

“I think the second set was a huge, huge win for me,” Tiafoe said. “You know, 5-3, 40-love, him serving, how good he serves, that was really, really big. To break there and then to win that set was huge.”

The No. 20 seed will attempt to match the best Grand Slam result of his career when