Years of effort to expand the accessibility of tennis culminated Friday as, for the first time ever, two Black American men met in the semifinals of the US Open.

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.

Years of effort to expand the accessibility of tennis culminated Friday as, for the first time ever, two Black American men met in the semifinals of the US Open.