It has been the surprise at the US Open so far: outsider Frances Tiafoe (USA) knocked tournament favorite Rafael Nadal out of the competition in four sets. On Wednesday he followed suit and after a 7: 6 (7: 3), 7: 6 (7: 0), 6: 4 against the Russian Andrei Rublev, he impressively made it into the semifinals. The 24-year-old Tiafoe is one of the young stars of the scene like Caspar Ruud (Norway) and Carlos Alcaraz (Spain) – his sporting history up to the top of the world is unique.
Frances Tiafoe comes from a humble background. His parents were immigrants from Sierra Leone and arrived in the early 1990s Washington D.C. Tiafoe’s mother worked as a nurse, his father Constant started out as a day laborer and worked for the construction team at the JTCC tennis academy in Washington, among other things.
Sleeping place in the converted storage room
When the construction of the academy was completed, Father Tiafoe remained employed there as administrator. The days were long for the family at the tennis court. Constant Tiafoe converted a storage room there into a place to sleep for himself and his two sons – much to the delight of Frances, who was now able to spend even more time playing tennis while his mother worked her night shifts in the hospital.
But the beginnings were also hard for the worker’s son. Frances was teased by his playmates, who often drove up in the classy Bentley, because he often wore the same T-shirt for days and his tennis socks had holes. “Those poor jokes back then really hurt. It made you feel like you weren’t cut from the same cloth in the back of your mind,” Tiafoe told the magazine “Andscape“.
But he put the teasing away and preferred to concentrate on the sport. He played and trained several hours a day as a child and by the age of 12 he knew he wanted to be a tennis pro. At this point he was working under the tutelage of Misha Kouznetsov, who discovered Tiafoe in late 2006 on his first day as a tennis instructor at JTCC.
Explorer Kouznetsov: “He was always there”
“He wasn’t any more talented than the other eight-year-olds who were there”said Kouznetsov in an interview. “But when I came to work in the morning, he was there. When I left in the evening, he was there. I saw a kid who was always there and a kid that I could teach as much tennis as I wanted.”
Tiafoe’s athletic development picked up speed. He was physically good and was soon beating children who were two years older than him.
Tiafoe in the match against Nadal.
Youngest winner of the Orange Bowl
At the age of 14, Tiafoe was playing in tournaments overseas and was World Under-14 Champion in France. At 15, Tiafoe was the youngest player to win the prestigious Orange Bowl International Championship won in Florida. At 16, he was invited to compete in the 2014 US Open qualifying draw, just months after he faced the French Open had been called to a batting session with Rafael Nadal.
At 17, the age he turned professional, Tiafoe gave up at the 2015 French Open Grand Slam-Main draw debut. Playing that event as a wild card, Tiafoe was the first American to play singles in the main draw of the French Open at that age since Michael Chang and Pete Sampras did so in 1989.
No training – “It’s all a waste of time”
While his parents still hoped he would pursue professional training alongside his tennis career, Frances joined actor Will Smith’s consulting agency in order to put his career on a more professional footing. He refused the training with the words: “All a waste of time.” The successes should prove him right, although the really big international triumph is still missing in Tiafoe’s vita.
Last October he reached the final of the ATP 500 tournament in Vienna, but failed in straight sets against Alexander Zverev. Now he has celebrated the greatest success of his career by reaching the semi-finals at the US Open – it doesn’t have to be the last step in an unusual career.