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Frances Tiafoe

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Frances Tiafoe
Frances Tiafoe at 2016 Wimbledon
Country (sports) United States
ResidenceBoca Raton, Florida
Born (1998-01-20) January 20, 1998 (age 26)
College Park, Maryland
Height1.88 m (6 ft 2 in)
Turned pro2015
PlaysRight-handed (two-handed backhand)
CoachNicolás Todero
Robby Ginepri
Prize money$821,346
Singles
Career record8–27 (22.9%)
Career titles0
Highest rankingNo. 60 (24 July 2017)
Current rankingNo. 79 (16 October 2017)
Grand Slam singles results
Australian Open2R (2017)
French Open1R (2015, 2017)
Wimbledon2R (2017)
US Open1R (2015, 2016, 2017)
Doubles
Career record4–6 (40.0%)
Career titles0
Highest rankingNo. 280 (19 June 2017)
Current rankingNo. 372 (16 October 2017)
Grand Slam doubles results
French Open1R (2017)
Wimbledon1R (2017)
US Open2R (2014)
Last updated on: 16 October 2017.

Frances Tiafoe Jr. (born January 20, 1998) is an American tennis player. Tiafoe has been described as a future American tennis star.[1][2][3][4] He is the third highest ranked teenager in the Top 100, and also a leading contender for the inaugural Next Generation ATP Finals at the end of the 2017 season.

At 15 years old, Tiafoe became the youngest boys' singles champion in Orange Bowl history.[5] At 17, he earned a wild card to play in the main draw of the French Open, becoming the youngest American to participate in the draw since Michael Chang in 1989. As a teenager, he has also won the US Junior National Championship and enjoyed success on the ATP Challenger Tour with 9 finals and 4 titles.

Early life and background

Frances' parents, Frances Sr.[6] and Alphina, are immigrants from Sierra Leone. He has a twin brother named Franklin. In 1999, Tiafoe Sr. began working as a day laborer on a construction crew that built the Junior Tennis Champions Center in College Park, Maryland, and was later hired as the custodian. At age four, Frances began training at JTCC.[7]

Junior career

On December 13, 2013, Tiafoe became the youngest player to win the Orange Bowl, defeating Stefan Kozlov in three sets in the final.[8][9] On April 13, 2014, he also won the Easter Bowl.[10]

In May, he was the top seed in the French Open junior tournament. However, he was upset in the second round by Jan Choinski.[11][12] He went into the Wimbledon Boys' Singles seeded 7th and was knocked out in the third round to fellow American Noah Rubin. He came back strong in the U.S. Open Juniors and reached the semifinals where he lost a very tight match to Quentin Halys.

In August 2015, Tiafoe won the U18 National Championship by defeating Stefan Kozlov in the final in a five set match 6–2, 6–4, 4–6, 4–6, 6–4. With the win, he earned a wild card into the main draw at the U.S. Open.

Professional career

2014

Tiafoe was granted a wild card into the qualifying draw of the BB&T Atlanta Open, but lost in the second round. The following week, Tiafoe made his ATP debut at his home tournament, the Citi Open, where he was granted a wild card into the main draw, but lost to Alex McLeish in his first match.

Tiafoe received a wild card into the U.S. Open singles qualifying draw, but fell in the first round to 11th seed Tatsuma Ito who went on to qualify for the main draw. He also received a wild card into the main draw of the Men's Doubles tournament at the U.S. Open with Michael Mmoh. The two teenagers won their first round match before losing to Scott Lipsky and Rajeev Ram in the second round.

2015: Turning Pro, First Grand Slam appearance

Frances Tiafoe at 2015 Open de Nice Côte d'Azur

Tiafoe was granted a wild card into the qualifying draw of the Memphis Open, but lost in the first round to No. 1 seed Filip Krajinović in three sets. On March 22, he claimed his first professional title winning the Bakersfield, CA Futures tournament.[13] He officially turned pro shortly after on April 6, 2015.

Turning to the American clay court Challenger circuit, Tiafoe put together a run of solid results that pushed him into the Top 400 in the world. Entering as a qualifier, Tiafoe defeated five opponents en route to the quarterfinals at the Sarasota Open.[14] He then reached the semi-finals of the Savannah Challenger, losing to James McGee.[15] In the third and final event of the clay court series, Tiafoe notched his first win against a Top 100 opponent, defeating Facundo Bagnis in the first round of the Tallahassee Tennis Challenger.[16] He would later reach his first final at the Challenger level in Tallahassee, where he would lose to Facundo Argüello in a close three-set match by a score of 6–2, 6–7, 4–6. Tiafoe earned enough rankings points at these three events to win the 2015 Har-Tru Challenge and earn the only American wild card spot into the main draw of the 2015 French Open.[17] At the French Open, he lost his Grand Slam debut to Martin Kližan.

In July, Tiafoe was granted a main draw wild card at the Atlanta Tennis Championships but lost in the first round to Sam Groth. A month later at the Winston-Salem Open, Tiafoe was able to put another wild card to better use, this time defeating all three of his opponents in the qualifying draw – including Ryan Harrison in three sets – to reach his first ATP main draw though qualifying. At Winston-Salem, Tiafoe won his first ATP tour level match by defeating James Duckworth 3–6, 7–6, 7–6 before falling to the No. 6 seed Thomaz Bellucci 3–6, 6–2, 6–7 in a very tight match.

By winning the Kalamazoo junior national championship, Tiafoe earned a wild card into the main draw at the U.S. Open – his second Grand Slam wild card of the year. He would lose to the No. 22 seed Viktor Troicki in the first round. After the U.S. Open, he continued his success on the Challenger tour and was able to reach a second final at Knoxville, losing in three sets to Dan Evans. Driven by this final and other Challenger results, Tiafoe climbed to a year-end ranking of 176, cracking the Top 200 a few months before turning 18 years old.

2016: Top 100 debut, Challenger titles

At the 2016 Indian Wells Masters, Tiafoe was awarded a wild card into the main draw and won his first-round match against his compatriot rival, No. 80 Taylor Fritz, in their first ever ATP-level match. He would lose his next match to David Goffin in a third-set tiebreak.

Tiafoe's best performance in the clay court season came at Tallahassee where he avenged his loss to Facundo Arguello in the final the previous year by knocking him out in the first round. For the second consecutive year, he was able to reach the final, this time losing to fellow teenager Quentin Halys.

Tiafoe began his return to the North American hard courts strongly by reaching his second Challenger final of the year at Winnetka before losing to top-seeded Yoshihito Nishioka. He then reached his third consecutive Challenger final in the United States at Lexington. The following week at Granby, Tiafoe reached his fourth Challenger final in five such events. He defeated Marcelo Arévalo in the final to capture his first Challenger title and climb to a career-high ranking of 123.

Tiafoe was awarded a wild card into the U.S. Open, his only Grand Slam main draw of the year. He faced off against American veteran John Isner in the first round and won the first two sets, but eventually lost the match in a fifth-set tiebreak. In October, Tiafoe cracked the Top 100 for the first time by winning the maiden event at Stockton, defeating fellow American Noah Rubin in the final. He finished the year ranked at 108, making him the highest-ranked player born in 1998 for the second year in a row.

2017: ATP Doubles final

At the Australian Open, Tiafoe began the year by reaching the main draw of a Grand Slam through qualifying for the first time and then recording his first career Grand Slam match win over Mikhail Kukushkin. To close out the winter hard court season, he also qualified for the Miami Masters and won his first round match before falling to Roger Federer.[18]

Tiafoe followed up a good start to the year on the hard courts with a very impressive clay court season that helped his ranking climb to No. 65 in the world. He began with the U.S. Men's Clay Court Championships in Houston, where reached his first career ATP final in the doubles event after partnering with veteran Dustin Brown as a wild card entry. He then continued his success on clay by winning back-to-back Challenger titles over the next three weeks at the Sarasota Open on green clay and the Open du Pays d'Aix on red clay, the former of which included a victory over former Top 10 player Jürgen Melzer in the semifinals.

In his Wimbledon debut, Tiafoe defeated Robin Haase in four sets for his first ATP Top 50 win. He followed this up with his first Top 10 win over Sascha Zverev at the Cincinnati Masters in August. Tiafoe gained more prominence after pushing Roger Federer to five sets in his first round match on Arthur Ashe Stadium at the U.S. Open.[19] In September, Captain John McEnroe chose Tiafoe to replace Juan Martin del Potro for Team World in the inaugural Laver Cup, which mostly featured players in the Top 25 of the ATP rankings.

ATP career finals

Doubles: 1 (1 runner-up)

Legend
Grand Slam tournaments (0–0)
ATP World Tour Finals (0–0)
ATP World Tour Masters 1000 (0–0)
ATP World Tour 500 Series (0–0)
ATP World Tour 250 Series (0–1)
Titles by surface
Hard (0–0)
Clay (0–1)
Grass (0–0)
Titles by setting
Outdoor (0–1)
Indoor (0–0)
Result W–L    Date    Tournament Tier Surface Partner Opponents Score
Loss 0–1 Apr 2017 U.S. Men's Clay Court Championships, US 250 Series Clay Germany Dustin Brown Chile Julio Peralta
Argentina Horacio Zeballos 		6–4, 5–7, [6–10]


ATP Challenger and ITF Futures finals

Singles: 12 (5–7)

Legend (Singles)
ATP Challenger Tour (4–5)
ITF Futures Tour (1–2)
Titles by Surface
Hard (3–4)
Clay (2–3)
Grass (0–0)
Result W–L    Date    Tournament Tier Surface Opponent Score
Loss 0–1 Jan 2015 USA F5, Weston Futures Clay Monaco Benjamin Balleret 5–7, 4–6
Win 1–1 Mar 2015 USA F10, Bakersfield Futures Hard France Maxime Tabatruong 6–1, 6–2
Loss 1–2 Mar 2015 USA F11, Calabasas Futures Hard United States Dennis Novikov 6–7(4–7), 6–7(6–8)
Loss 1–3 May 2015 Tallahassee, US Challenger Clay Argentina Facundo Argüello 6–2, 6–7(5–7), 4–6
Loss 1–4 Nov 2015 Knoxville, US Challenger Hard (i) United Kingdom Dan Evans 7–5, 1–6, 3–6
Loss 1–5 Apr 2016 Tallahassee, US Challenger Clay France Quentin Halys 7–6(8–6), 4–6, 2–6
Loss 1–6 Jul 2016 Winnetka, US Challenger Hard Japan Yoshihito Nishioka 3–6, 2–6
Loss 1–7 Jul 2016 Lexington, US Challenger Hard United States Ernesto Escobedo 2–6, 7–6(8–6), 6–7(3–7)
Win 2–7 Aug 2016 Granby, Canada Challenger Hard El Salvador Marcelo Arévalo 6–1, 6–1
Win 3–7 Oct 2016 Stockton, US Challenger Hard United States Noah Rubin 6–4, 6–2
Win 4–7 Apr 2017 Sarasota, US Challenger Clay United States Tennys Sandgren 6–3, 6–4
Win 5–7 May 2017 Aix-en-Provence, France Challenger Clay France Jérémy Chardy 6–3, 4–6, 7–6(7–5)

Doubles: 1 (0–1)

Legend (Doubles)
ATP Challenger Tour (0–0)
ITF Futures Tour (0–1)
Titles by Surface
Hard (0–0)
Clay (0–1)
Grass (0–0)
Result W–L    Date    Tournament Tier Surface Partner Opponents Score
Loss 0–1 Jan 2014 USA F2, Sunrise Futures Clay United States William Blumberg Chinese Taipei Jason Jung
United States Evan King 		7–6(7–4), 4–6, [6–10]

Performance timelines

Key
W  F  SF QF #R RR Q# P# DNQ A Z# PO G S B NMS NTI P NH
(W) winner; (F) finalist; (SF) semifinalist; (QF) quarterfinalist; (#R) rounds 4, 3, 2, 1; (RR) round-robin stage; (Q#) qualification round; (P#) preliminary round; (DNQ) did not qualify; (A) absent; (Z#) Davis/Fed Cup Zonal Group (with number indication) or (PO) play-off; (G) gold, (S) silver or (B) bronze Olympic/Paralympic medal; (NMS) not a Masters tournament; (NTI) not a Tier I tournament; (P) postponed; (NH) not held; (SR) strike rate (events won / competed); (W–L) win–loss record.
To avoid confusion and double counting, these charts are updated at the conclusion of a tournament or when the player's participation has ended.

Singles

Current till 2017 Shanghai Rolex Masters

Tournament 2014 2015 2016 2017 SR W–L
Grand Slam tournaments
Australian Open A A Q2 2R 0 / 1 1–1
French Open A 1R Q3 1R 0 / 2 0–2
Wimbledon A A Q1 2R 0 / 1 1–1
US Open Q1 1R 1R 1R 0 / 3 0–3
Win–Loss 0–0 0–2 0–1 2–4 0 / 7 2–7
ATP World Tour Masters 1000
Indian Wells Masters A A 2R 1R 0 / 2 1–2
Miami Open A A A 2R 0 / 1 1–1
Monte-Carlo Masters A A A A 0 / 0 0–0
Madrid Open A A A A 0 / 0 0–0
Italian Open A A A A 0 / 0 0–0
Canadian Open A A A 1R 0 / 1 0–1
Cincinnati Masters A Q1 A 3R 0 / 1 2–1
Shanghai Masters A A A 2R 0 / 1 1–1
Paris Masters A A A 0 / 0 0–0
Win–Loss 0–0 0–0 1–1 4–5 0 / 6 5–6
Career statistics
Titles / Finals 0 / 0 0 / 0 0 / 0 0 / 0 0 / 0
Overall Win–Loss 0–1 1–5 1–6 6–15 8–27
Year-end ranking 1145 176 108 22%

Doubles

Tournament 2014 2015 2016 2017 SR W–L
Grand Slam tournaments
Australian Open A A A A 0 / 0 0–0
French Open A A A 1R 0 / 1 0–1
Wimbledon A A A 1R 0 / 1 0–1
US Open 2R A A A 0 / 1 1–1
Win–Loss 1–1 0–0 0–0 0–2 0 / 3 1–3
Career statistics
Titles / Finals 0 / 0 0 / 0 0 / 0 0 / 1 0 / 1
Overall Win–Loss 1–1 0–1 0–1 3–3 4–6
Year-end ranking 536 N/A 684 40%

Wins over top 10 players

Season 2015 2016 2017 Total
Wins 0 0 1 1
# Player Rank Event Surface Rd Score Tiafoe
Rank
2017
1. Germany Alexander Zverev 7 Cincinnati, United States Hard 2R 4–6, 6–3, 6–4 87

References

  1. ^ Wertheim, Jon. "Jon Wertheim: Unlikely prodigy Francis Tiafoe hyped as next great success for U.S. tennis". SI.com. Retrieved 2017-08-30.
  2. ^ "Francis Tiafoe is a hot name in U.S. tennis circles". Retrieved 2017-08-30.
  3. ^ Diallo, Mariama. "Francis Tiafoe, Next Big American Tennis Star?". VOA. Retrieved 2017-08-30.
  4. ^ "The son of immigrants from Sierra Leone, Francis Tiafoe is top seed at French Open junior tournament". Washington Post. Retrieved 2017-08-30.
  5. ^ "Tiafoe outlasts Kozlov in all-American Orange Bowl final". www.playerdevelopment.usta.com. Retrieved 2017-05-18.
  6. ^ https://www.washingtonpost.com/sf/sports/wp/2014/05/17/an-improbable-tennis-prodigy
  7. ^ Growing Up With a Home Advantage
  8. ^ Teen star Francis Tiafoe takes title, makes Orange Bowl Tennis Championships history
  9. ^ College Park’s Francis Tiafoe, 15, becomes youngest tennis champion at Orange Bowl juniors event
  10. ^ Francis Tiafoe of College Park wins the Easter Bowl junior tennis championship
  11. ^ Prince George’s native Francis Tiafoe, the No. 1 seed at the French Open junior tournament, realizes his dream
  12. ^ Top seed Francis Tiafoe loses in second round of Junior French Open
  13. ^ http://www.itftennis.com/procircuit/tournaments/men's-tournament/info.aspx?tournamentid=1100034280
  14. ^ http://www.atpworldtour.com/News/Tennis/2015/04/16/Challenger-Weekly-Spotlight-20-April-2015.aspx
  15. ^ http://savannahnow.com/sports/2015-04-25/mcgee-chung-advance-challenger-finals
  16. ^ http://www.tallahassee.com/story/sports/2015/04/28/youth-prevails-usta-tallahassee-tennis-challenger/26553923/
  17. ^ http://www.tennis.com/pro-game/2015/05/17-year-old-frances-tiafoe-earns-french-open-wild-card-berth/54803/#.VUUmgyFVikp
  18. ^ "Tennis: Federer sees off Tiafoe in Miami opener". sports.yahoo.com. Yahoo. Retrieved 25 March 2017.
  19. ^ "Who Is Frances Tiafoe? Federer Sure Found Out". New York Times. Retrieved 31 August 2017.

External links

Template:Top ten American male singles tennis players

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