Frances Tiafoe

Frances Tiafoe

Frances Tiafoe at the 2015 Open de Nice Côte d'Azur
Country (sports)  United States
Residence College Park, Maryland
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) Nicolas Todero
Prize money $288,651
Singles
Career record 2–9
Career titles 0
Highest ranking No. 167 (21 March 2016)
Current ranking No. 172 (11 April 2016)
Grand Slam Singles results
Australian Open Q2 (2016)
French Open 1R (2015)
US Open 1R (2015)
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 hyped as one of the United States' next tennis stars.[1][2][3][4]

At 15 years old, Tiafoe became the youngest boys' singles champion in Orange Bowl history. A month after turning pro in April 2015, Tiafoe earned a wild-card to play in the French Open main draw after accumulating the most ranking points in three USTA Pro Circuit clay-court events, becoming the youngest American to participate in the draw since Michael Chang in 1989.

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 classic 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 22nd, he claimed his first professional title winning the Bakersfield, CA Futures tournament.[11] He officially turned pro shortly after on April 6th, 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 Arguello in a close three-set match by a score of 6–2, 6–7, 4–6. Tiafoe earned enough rankings points at the 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

At the Dallas Challenger, Tiafoe knocked off No. 77 Sam Groth, the highest ranked player he had ever defeated. Groth had also beaten him in the previous summer. 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.

In Tallahassee, Tiafoe 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.

Tour Finals

Singles

Legend
Grand Slam (0)
ATP Masters Series (0)
ATP Tour (0)
Challengers (0–3)
ITF Futures (1–2)
Outcome No. Date Tournament Surface Opponent Score
Runner-up 1. January 25, 2015 United States United States F5 Clay Monaco Benjamin Balleret 5–7, 4–6
Winner 2. March 22, 2015 United States United States F10 Hard France Maxime Tabatruong 6–1, 6–2
Runner-up 3. March 29, 2015 United States United States F11 Hard United States Dennis Novikov 6–7(4–7), 6–7(6–8)
Runner-up 4. May 3, 2015 United States Tallahassee Clay Argentina Facundo Arguello 6–2, 6–7(5–7), 4–6
Runner-up 5. November 15, 2015 United States Knoxville Hard (i) United Kingdom Dan Evans 7–5, 1–6, 3–6
Runner-up 6. April 30, 2016 United States Tallahassee Clay France Quentin Halys 7–6(8–6), 4–6, 2–6

Singles performance timeline

Tournament201420152016SRW–LWin %
Grand Slam Tournaments
Australian Open A A Q2 0 / 0 0–0 0%
French Open A 1R 0 / 1 0–1 0%
Wimbledon A A 0 / 0 0–0 0%
US Open Q1 1R 0 / 1 0–1 0%
Win–Loss 0–0 0–2 0–0 0 / 2 0–2 0%
Career statistics
Titles–Finals 0–0 0–0 0–0 0
Year End Ranking 1145 176 $138,381

References

External links

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