80 Facts About Frances Tiafoe

Frances Tiafoe won his first and only ATP title at the 2018 Delray Beach Open, becoming the youngest American man to win a tournament on the ATP Tour since Andy Roddick in 2002.

Son of Sierra Leonean immigrants, Frances Tiafoe was raised at the Junior Tennis Champions Center, a USTA regional training center in College Park, Maryland, where his father worked as the head of maintenance.

At 15, Frances Tiafoe won the 2013 Orange Bowl, the tournament's youngest-ever boys' singles champion.

Frances Tiafoe broke into the top 100 of the ATP rankings in 2016.

Frances Tiafoe's father immigrated to the United States in 1993, while his mother joined him in 1996 to escape the civil war in their country.

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Frances Tiafoe continued to coach Tiafoe for nine years until he moved to the USTA National Training Center in Boca Raton, Florida.

Frances Tiafoe won enough high-level junior titles to reach world No 2 in the International Tennis Federation junior rankings.

At the age of 14, Frances Tiafoe won his first prestigious international tournament at Les Petits As in France.

The following year, in December 2013, Frances Tiafoe became the youngest player to win the Orange Bowl, one of the highest-tier Grade A events on the ITF Junior Circuit.

Frances Tiafoe defeated compatriot Stefan Kozlov in the final a month before turning 16 years old.

Frances Tiafoe then lost at Wimbledon to the eventual champion Noah Rubin.

Frances Tiafoe produced his best result at a junior Grand Slam tournament at the US Open, where he reached the semifinals before losing a tight match to Quentin Halys.

Frances Tiafoe defeated Stefan Kozlov in the final in a five-set match, taking the first two sets and the last.

Frances Tiafoe made his ATP Tour main draw debut at the age of 16 after being granted a wildcard by his home tournament, the 2014 Washington Open.

Frances Tiafoe lost to Evgeny Donskoy in his first career tour-level match.

At the 2014 US Open, Frances Tiafoe received a wildcard into the qualifying draw but lost to 11th seed Tatsuma Ito.

Frances Tiafoe then made his main-draw debut at the US Open with the wildcard he earned from winning the junior national championship.

At the Indian Wells Masters, Frances 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.

Frances Tiafoe lost his next match to David Goffin in a third-set tiebreak.

Frances Tiafoe began his return to the North American hardcourts by reaching his second Challenger final of the year at Winnetka before losing to top-seeded Yoshihito Nishioka.

Frances Tiafoe then reached his third consecutive Challenger final in the United States at Lexington.

The following week at Granby, Frances Tiafoe reached his fourth Challenger final in five such events in North America.

Frances Tiafoe defeated Marcelo Arevalo in the final to capture his first Challenger title and climb to a career-high ranking of No 123 in the world.

Frances Tiafoe was awarded a wildcard into the US Open, his only Grand Slam main draw of the year.

Frances Tiafoe 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.

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Frances Tiafoe finished the year ranked 108, making him the highest-ranked player at his age for the second year in a row.

At the Australian Open, Frances 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 major match win over Mikhail Kukushkin.

Frances 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.

Frances Tiafoe began with the US Men's Clay Court Championships in Houston, where he reached his first career ATP final in the doubles event, after partnering with veteran Dustin Brown as a wildcard entry.

Frances Tiafoe 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 Jurgen Melzer in the semifinals.

Frances Tiafoe gained more prominence after taking Roger Federer to five sets in his first-round match on Arthur Ashe Stadium at the US Open.

Frances Tiafoe achieved a year-end ranking inside the top 100 for the first time, but only managed to be named the first alternate for the inaugural Next Generation ATP Finals.

Frances Tiafoe entered the year having struggled on the ATP Tour, with just nine wins in 38 matches.

At the inaugural New York Open, Frances Tiafoe reached his first career quarterfinal at an ATP Tour-level event before losing to top seed Kevin Anderson.

The following week, Frances Tiafoe entered the Delray Beach Open as a wildcard and won his first ATP title after beating Peter Gojowczyk in the final.

Frances Tiafoe became the first wildcard entry to win the tournament.

Frances Tiafoe continued his success at the ATP level into the clay-court season.

Frances Tiafoe played at the Portugal Open for the first time and made it to his second ATP final of the year, despite needing to save three match points in the first round.

Frances Tiafoe followed up on this success at Wimbledon by picking up his first win over a seeded opponent at a major against No 30, Fernando Verdasco, en route to reaching the third round of a major for the first time.

Frances Tiafoe defeated two top-30 players, including hometown favorite Milos Raonic, before losing to No 5 Grigor Dimitrov in a third-set tiebreak.

At the US Open, Frances Tiafoe won his first career match at the event against No 29, Adrian Mannarino, before losing to fellow Next Gen player Alex de Minaur in the second round.

Frances Tiafoe defeated Hubert Hurkacz in his round robin group, but lost to Jaume Munar and the eventual champion, Stefanos Tsitsipas, as he did not advance out of the group.

Frances Tiafoe did not win multiple matches at a tournament again until he reached the quarterfinals at the Miami Open, losing to Denis Shapovalov.

Frances Tiafoe closed out the clay-court season with a first-round loss at the French Open to Filip Krajinovic in which he struggled with an illness.

Frances Tiafoe faced more difficult draws at Wimbledon and the US Open, losing to No 10 Fabio Fognini in the opening round of the former and No 7 Alexander Zverev in the second round of the latter, despite pushing both opening to five sets.

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Frances Tiafoe was placed in a round-robin group with Ugo Humbert, Mikael Ymer, and Jannik Sinner.

Frances Tiafoe dropped out of the top 50 in February, after losing his quarterfinal points from the 2019 Australian Open when he was defeated in the first round of the 2020 Australian Open by Daniil Medvedev.

Frances Tiafoe lost in straight sets in the round of 16 to the tournament's third seed, Daniil Medvedev of Russia.

Frances Tiafoe started the year at the Delray Beach Open, where he was beaten by Cameron Norrie in the quarterfinals.

Frances Tiafoe then lost in the second round of the Australian Open and in the first or second rounds of several ATP 250 tournaments.

Frances Tiafoe did not have good results during the European Clay Swing as he could not qualify for the main draw of the Madrid Masters or the Rome Masters and he lost in the first round of the French Open to Steve Johnson, despite being up two sets to love.

Frances Tiafoe started his grass-court season by defeating Denis Kudla to win the Nottingham Open.

Frances Tiafoe reached the quarterfinals at the Queen's Club Championships, where he lost to Denis Shapovalov.

Later that grass-court season, Frances Tiafoe had one of his greatest career wins in the first round of Wimbledon, beating world No 4 and 2021 French Open finalist, Stefanos Tsitsipas, in straight sets to gain his first win against a top-5 player.

Frances Tiafoe became just the second American man since 2010 to defeat a top-three seed at a major, joining Sam Querrey, who did it at Wimbledon in both 2016 and 2017.

Frances Tiafoe then defeated Vasek Pospisil in the second round in straight sets to reach the third round at Wimbledon for the second time in his career, where he lost to Karen Khachanov.

At the 2020 Olympics, Frances Tiafoe lost in the second round to Tsitsipas, who took his revenge for the Wimbledon loss.

At the Canadian Open, Frances Tiafoe lost in the second round of qualifying to Emil Ruusuvuori, but was awarded a lucky-loser spot in the main draw after fellow American Sebastian Korda withdrew.

Frances Tiafoe defeated qualifier Yoshihito Nishioka in the first round, and then earned his second top-10 victory of the year by upsetting 10th-ranked home favorite Denis Shapovalov in the second round.

Frances Tiafoe had to enter the main draw via qualifying in Vienna, beating Alex Molcan and Lucas Miedler, both in three sets.

Frances Tiafoe then beat Diego Schwartzman to reach his first ATP 500 semifinal, where he beat Jannik Sinner after trailing in the second set to reach his first ATP 500 final.

Frances Tiafoe saw success in the European Clay swing of the season.

Frances Tiafoe lost to Sebastian Baez in the finals but reached the top 25 in the rankings on May 2, 2022.

Frances Tiafoe, who had played in the French Open six times previously, recorded his first victory at Roland Garros in 2022 with a first-round win over Benjamin Bonzi.

Frances Tiafoe lost again to Goffin this time in a tight five sets match that lasted 4 hours and 36 minutes.

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At the Atlanta Open, Frances Tiafoe reached the semifinals where he lost to Jenson Brooksby in straight sets.

The next week, at the Canadian Open, Frances Tiafoe reached the second round with a win over Benjamin Bonzi before losing to No 10 seed Taylor Fritz.

Frances Tiafoe reached the fourth round of the US Open with a win in the third round over No 14 seed Diego Schwartzman.

Frances Tiafoe is only the third American to defeat Nadal in a Grand Slam after Roddick and Blake (2005).

Frances Tiafoe saved a match point against him in the fourth set, after coming back from two sets to one down, but lost in the decider.

At the 2022 Laver Cup Frances Tiafoe defeated Stefanos Tsitsipas to seal the victory for Team World.

Frances Tiafoe has played three seasons of World TeamTennis, all with his hometown team the Washington Kastles, making his debut in 2017.

Frances Tiafoe was to return to the Kastles during the 2020 WTT season, but did not play after testing positive for COVID-19.

Frances Tiafoe said that Tiafoe's second serve could use improvement.

When Frances Tiafoe won the 2018 Delray Beach Open, he credited an improved serve for his better play in the tournament.

From age 8 to 17, Frances Tiafoe was coached at the Junior Tennis Champions Center in Maryland by Misha Kouznetsov, who had played college tennis at UMBC and coached tennis at Robert Morris.

Frances Tiafoe chose this racket because it helps him "play more aggressively".

Frances Tiafoe picked up his first win over his idol at the 2018 Delray Beach Open en route to his first career ATP title.

Frances Tiafoe is a fan of Washington area sports teams, including the Washington Commanders in the National Football League, and the Washington Capitals in the National Hockey League.

Frances Tiafoe has embraced his position both as one of the few African American players on the ATP Tour and as a potential role model to youngsters in general, saying, "That's one of my biggest motivations – to get more black people playing tennis.