Tommy Paul, Frances Tiafoe lead eight Americans into quarterfinals in Houston

For the first time since all of them were even born, there are eight Americans through to the quarterfinals of an ATP event, as Tommy Paul, Frances Tiafoe, Brandon Nakashima, Alex Michelsen, Aleksandar Kovacevic, Chris Eubanks, Colton Smith and Jenson Broosky have swept all eight spots in the quarterfinals in Houston.

The last all-American line-up at an ATP event came on the hard courts of Orlando in 1991, which was actually more than five years before any of the Houston quarterfinalists were born.

In Orlando that year, the quarterfinal line-up consisted of Andre Agassi, Pete Sampras, Brad Gilbert, Derrick Rostagno, Jimmy Arias, David Pate, MaliVai Washington and Chuck Adams.

Agassi would go on to win the title, defeating Rostagno in the final.

Paul, Kovacevic, Smith and Brooksby all won their second-round matches on Wednesday, with Paul and Brooksby having by far the toughest day at the office, both taking out former Top 20 players in third set tie-breaks—Paul edged Cristian Garin, 2-6, 6-2, 7-6 (5), while Brooksby battled back from triple match point down in the breaker to defeat Alejandro Tabilo, 3-6, 6-4, 7-6 (6).

And at No. 507, Brooksby actually became the lowest-ranked quarterfinalist in the tournament's history.

Also, for the 22-year-old Smith, it's his first ATP quarterfinal.

Tiafoe, Nakashima, Michelsen and Eubanks all won their second-round matches on Thursday, with Tiafoe moving through to the quarterfinals of the clay-court event for the fourth year in a row after a 7-5, 6-3 victory over Australia's Adam Walton.

In the last match of the night, Michelsen clinched the last spot in the final eight with a 6-7 (0), 6-4, 6-2 victory over another former Top 20 player, Adrian Mannarino, to complete the American sweep.

"It's sick," the 20-year-old said of the all-American final eight. "We have a lot of great guys in the Top 100 right now, 12 or 13, and we're playing super strong. Hopefully one of us will win a Slam soon!"

The eight Americans will go to battle with each other on Friday, with all four quarterfinals on the schedule starting at noon local time.

Kovacevic and Brooksby are first up, followed by Paul against Smith, then Nakashima against Eubanks—with Tiafoe against Michelsen the feature night match with a not before 6pm start.

There were three all-American duos in the doubles quarterfinals, too, but only one of them—top seeds Robert Galloway and Jackson Withrow—made it through to the semifinals.