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NEW YORK — At the US Open there are tennis matches where the main focus is on the money or the big trophy.

And then there are games like the one between Ben Shelton and Frances Tiafoe on Friday afternoon, where money was at stake but didn’t mean much. What mattered was something even more important, if only to these two.

They are the biggest stars in American men’s tennis and, in terms of the number of spectators they draw, among the biggest in all of tennis. Each of them plays a uniquely electrifying brand of tennis and what they lack in victories and titles they make up for in style and entertainment.

All of that brought them to Arthur Ashe Stadium on Friday for a third-round clash that might have had the same tension and testosterone levels if it had taken place outside the gates of the Billie Jean King National Tennis Center on one of the courts at Flushing Meadows Park.

When it was over, after five sets and more than four hours of shoulder-breaking serves, grunting forehands and subtle volleys, Tiafoe danced across the blue paint, the winner of a third-round match 4-6, 7-5, 6-7(5), 6-4, 6-3 and something much more beautiful.

Frances Tiafoe avenged his loss to Ben Shelton at last year’s US Open. (Angela Weiss / AFP via Getty Images)

These two alpha dogs of American tennis like each other very much. When they play, they know they are fighting for something intangible. Something like bragging rights, which can perhaps only be measured by the respective decibel levels of the shouts of “TI-A-FOE!” or “Let’s go, Ben!”

Tiafoe won this Friday, which is great for a fight in the first week of a Grand Slam.

Trailing two sets to one, Tiafoe battled through the fourth set, tiring Shelton into a series of errors, all of the same type: overpowered shots that flew wide and wide. Then he stepped up midway through the fifth set and made the decisive break when he stormed the net with one of his low, sweeping forehands and sent Shelton packing. He wasn’t worried about the winner. He wanted the next shot, a softball that would be an invitation to the fourth round on the felt.

Then he went to his towel, looked up at the crowd and waved his right index finger in the direction of the court. Right here. Right now.

As he closed out the match, landing one final volley down the front of the court, Shelton’s smile spread almost as wide as Tiafoe’s. His lunch was taken away from him by the guy he stole it from on this very court a year ago. What followed were hugs, head hugs, the push to take the next step and beat his likely fourth-round opponent, Novak Djokovic.

Tiafoe and Shelton’s tennis style is synonymous with the sports and symbols they love. It’s muscular biceps bulging out of sleeveless shirts on a basketball court and stars from Hollywood and the NFL sitting courtside watching it all. It’s playground tennis, putting the strings on the ball in every way imaginable — sans laces, short hops, running — along with the big ideas about strategy and point-building. Shelton attended a clay-court boot camp to learn a surface his countrymen generally turn up their noses at. Tiafoe enlisted David Witt, the celebrated coach of Jessica Pegula and Maria Sakkari, to teach him how to see moments for what they really are.

Whether in New York or in the hallways of tennis stadiums from Miami to Madrid and everywhere in between, you can hear them coming from around the corner, patting someone on the shoulder or teasing someone about cheating on the practice court, taking as much as they dish out.

As they enter the court, Tiafoe waves to the crowd, telling them to raise their voice, or rubs his thumb and forefinger together after hitting a razor-sharp backhand volley that hits the floor and fizzles out. The next Shelton wins the match with another 140 mph ace, showing off to the crowd as if he had just finished a set in the weight room.

Ben Shelton used his serve to avoid danger throughout the match, but it eventually caught up with him. (Al Bello / Getty Images)

Shelton, 21, is the son of a former professional. Tiafoe, 26, is the son of a maintenance technician at a tennis center in Maryland. A little backstory.

Two years ago, it was Tiafoe who began to fulfill his long-held hopes by defeating Rafael Nadal during his run to the semifinals against Carlos Alcaraz. He took over the tournament and the city like no other American had in years, showing off his fastest hands and feet to millions of fans who had barely heard of him before. Suddenly he was rubbing shoulders with NBA stars and getting advice from LeBron James and Steph Curry.

Shelton had just finished college at the time, and the NCAA champion was playing some of his first tour-level tournaments, beyond Green and Raw. He didn’t have a passport. He had never left the country.

But that 150-mph serve and a former football player’s penchant for throwing his 6-foot-4 frame all over the court propelled him into the stratosphere. He played like he’d never left the raucous NCAA tennis courts, shouting “Yeah!” and pumping his fist whenever he could. At last year’s US Open, he added a cheeky celebration, with a DJ, that his Gen Z peers in particular found irresistible.

He did it after beating Tiafoe in four sets in the quarterfinals, taking over the tournament like no American had done in 12 months. When he lost in the semifinals to eventual champion Novak Djokovic, he was less than pleased to see Djokovic cheering his victory back to him on the phone.

Tiafoe, who spoke Wednesday about how painful it was to watch Shelton get all the attention, is still fighting his way out of a slump that began with the loss in New York. While Tiafoe was faltering, Shelton became “that guy” who stole his lunch and flashed billboards for his sponsor, On.

Evian has its own billboards. It places Tiafoe all over New York promoting the tournament. On Friday, he made it look like a smart bet.

Whether he will be able to do so again on Sunday is a question for the weekend.

As the crowd around Arthur Ashe roared and roared, Martin Blackman, who heads up player development for the USTA and has known both Shelton and Tiafoe since they were young children, watched Friday’s match idly, not wanting to be seen rooting for one of his tennis children.

“He needs to serve better,” Blackman said of Tiafoe, who hit just 57 percent of his first serves. “He needs to do more on the second serve return. But if he moves well and does those two things and gets involved in the game and is able to play forward, I think he has a chance.”

Shelton had his chances on Friday, but every time he tried to hit short forehands to Tiafoe’s backhand, Tiafoe seemed to downplay the ball. Yet Shelton kept trying the same thing. A missed second serve return when Tiafoe was on the defensive early in the fourth set could keep him up for a few nights.

“Missed a forehand shot by 47 feet,” he said.

The same goes for a forehand from the middle of the court during a break chance at the beginning of the fifth set. I missed that one too.

Tiafoe wasn’t perfect, especially on his serve, but as he put it, “Serving well at the end is what counts.”

What may matter just as much is what Tiafoe and Shelton have contributed to the sport, and not because of any grand plan.

“Just show your personality,” Tiafoe said. “Be yourself. You don’t always have to be this upstanding, perfect guy with class. You can be yourself and pump yourself up in any way you want.”

(Top photo: Angela Weiss / AFP via Getty Images)