Frances Tiafoe

Frances Tiafoe

Frances Tiafoe at the 2015 Open de Nice Côte d'Azur
Country (sports)	United States
Residence	Boca Raton, Florida
Born	(1998-01-20) January 20, 1998 College Park, Maryland
Height	1.88 m (6 ft 2 in)
Turned pro	2015
Plays	Right-handed (two-handed backhand)
Coach(es)	Jose Higueras
Prize money	$288,651
Singles
Career record	2–9
Career titles	0
Highest ranking	No. 100 (10 October 2016)
Current ranking	No. 104 (17 October 2016)
Grand Slam Singles results
Australian Open	Q2 (2016)
French Open	1R (2015)
Wimbledon	Q1 (2016)
US Open	1R (2015, 2016)
Doubles
Career record	1–3
Career titles	0
Highest ranking	No. 521 (September 22, 2014)
Current ranking	NR (January 11, 2016)
Grand Slam Doubles results
US Open	2R (2014)
Last updated on: March 24, 2016.

Frances Tiafoe (born January 20, 1998) is an American tennis player who is widely considered as one of the United States' next tennis stars.^[1][2][3][4] When he debuted in the Top 100 on October 10, 2016, he was the youngest player in the group.

At 15 years old, Tiafoe became the youngest boys' singles champion in Orange Bowl history. 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 7 finals and 2 titles.

History

Frances' parents, Constant and Alphina, are immigrants from Sierra Leone. He has a twin-brother named Franklin. In 1999, his father, 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. When he was eight, a tennis pro at the Center, Misha Kouznetsov, became his coach and mentor.^[5]

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.^[6][7] On April 13, 2014, he also won the Easter Bowl.^[8]

In May, he was the top seed in the French Open junior tournament. However, he was upset in the second round by Jan Choinski.^[9][10] He went into Wimbledon seeded 7th and was knocked out in the third round to fellow American Noah Rubin. He came back strong in the U.S. Open 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 US Open.

Professional career

2014

Tiafoe was granted a wildcard 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 wildcard into the main draw, but lost to Evgeny Donskoy in his first match.

Tiafoe received a wildcard 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 wildcard 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

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.^[11] 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.^[12] He then reached the semi-finals of the Savannah Challenger, losing to James McGee.^[13] 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.^[14] 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 the win the 2015 Har-Tru Challenge and earn the only American wild card spot into the main draw of the 2015 French Open.^[15] 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 strongest 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.

While trying to qualify for the Queen's Club Championships in London, Tiafoe won a match against No. 66 John Millman, the highest ranked player he had ever defeated. A few weeks later, he 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 US 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.

Tour finals

Singles

Outcome	No.	Date	Tournament	Surface	Opponent	Score
Runner-up	1.	000000002015-01-25-0000January 25, 2015	United States F5	Clay	Benjamin Balleret	5–7, 4–6
Winner	2.	000000002015-03-22-0000March 22, 2015	United States F10	Hard	Maxime Tabatruong	6–1, 6–2
Runner-up	3.	000000002015-03-29-0000March 29, 2015	United States F11	Hard	Dennis Novikov	6–7(4–7), 6–7(6–8)
Runner-up	4.	May 3, 2015	Tallahassee	Clay	Facundo Arguello	6–2, 6–7(5–7), 4–6
Runner-up	5.	November 15, 2015	Knoxville	Hard (i)	Dan Evans	7–5, 1–6, 3–6
Runner-up	6.	April 30, 2016	Tallahassee	Clay	Quentin Halys	7–6(8–6), 4–6, 2–6
Runner-up	7.	July 9, 2016	Winnetka	Hard	Yoshihito Nishioka	3–6, 2–6
Runner-up	8.	July 31, 2016	Lexington	Hard	Ernesto Escobedo	2–6, 7–6(8–6), 6–7(3–7)
Winner	9.	August 7, 2016	Granby	Hard	Marcelo Arévalo	6–1, 6–1
Winner	10.	October 9, 2016	Stockton	Hard	Noah Rubin	6–4, 6–2

Singles performance timeline

References

External links

• Frances Tiafoe at the Association of Tennis Professionals
• Frances Tiafoe at the International Tennis Federation

Association of Tennis Professionals: Top ten American male singles tennis players as of 28 November 2016
1. John Isner (19 ) 2. Jack Sock (23 ) 3. Sam Querrey (31 ) 4. Steve Johnson (33 ) 5. Taylor Fritz (76 1)
6. Donald Young (88 1) 7. Ryan Harrison (90 2) 8. Jared Donaldson (105 1) 9. Frances Tiafoe (108 1) 10. Bjorn Fratangelo (114 1)