Frances Tiafoe

Frances Tiafoe Jr. ( tee-AH-foh; born January 20, 1998) is an American professional tennis player. He reached his career-high singles ranking of world No. 10 on 19 June 2023. He also has a best doubles ranking of No. 160, achieved on 1 November 2021.

Tiafoe won his first of three ATP titles at the 2018 Delray Beach Open, becoming the youngest American man to win a tournament on the ATP Tour since Andy Roddick in 2002. He won his second title on clay at the 2023 U.S. Men's Clay Court Championships in Houston and his third on grass in 2023 Stuttgart.

The son of Sierra Leonean immigrants, Tiafoe was raised at the Junior Tennis Champions Center (JTCC), a USTA regional training center in College Park, Maryland, where his father worked as the head of maintenance. His unique background and success as a teenager led him to be widely regarded as a great prospect to become one of the next American tennis stars. At 15, Tiafoe won the 2013 Orange Bowl, the tournament's youngest-ever boys' singles champion. At 17, he became the youngest American in the main draw of the French Open since Michael Chang in 1989. As a teenager, he won the US Junior National Championship and enjoyed success on the ATP Challenger Tour, reaching nine finals and winning four titles.

Tiafoe broke into the top 100 of the ATP rankings in 2016. At the 2019 Australian Open and 2025 French Open, he reached the quarterfinals, and at the 2022 US Open, he reached the semifinals of a Grand Slam tournament for the first time, a feat which he then repeated at the 2024 US Open.

Early life and background

Tiafoe was born on January 20, 1998, along with his twin brother, Franklin, in Maryland, to Constant (better known as Frances Sr.) Tiafoe and Alphina Kamara, immigrants from Sierra Leone. His father immigrated to the United States in 1993, while his mother joined him in 1996 to escape the civil war in their country. In 1999, his father began working as a day laborer on a construction crew that built the Junior Tennis Champions Center (JTCC) in College Park, Maryland. When the facility was completed, he was hired as the on-site custodian and given a spare office to live in at the center. The Tiafoe brothers lived with their father at the center for five days a week for the next 11 years. They took advantage of their living situation to start playing tennis regularly at age 4. They stayed with their mother when she was not working night shifts as a nurse.

When Tiafoe and his brother were 5 years old, their father arranged for them to begin training at the JTCC, bypassing their usual fees. When Tiafoe was 8 years old, Misha Kouznetsov began coaching him at the center, taking interest in him after seeing his work ethic and interest in the sport. Kouznetsov helped sponsor Tiafoe's participation in tournaments as he progressed through the junior ranks. He continued to coach Tiafoe for nine years until he moved to the USTA National Training Center in Boca Raton, Florida. Tiafoe's brother Franklin stayed in Maryland, where he attended Laurel Springs School and accredited, NCAA approved online school, while playing high school tennis at DeMatha Catholic High School and later played college tennis at Salisbury University.

Junior career

Tiafoe won enough high-level junior titles to reach world No. 2 in the International Tennis Federation (ITF) junior rankings. His success at the juniors combined with his unusual upbringing helped him rise to national prominence before he turned pro. At the age of 14, Tiafoe won his first prestigious international tournament at Les Petits As in France. The following year, in December 2013, Tiafoe became the youngest player to win the Orange Bowl, one of the highest-tier Grade A events on the ITF Junior Circuit. He defeated compatriot Stefan Kozlov in the final a month before turning 16. Several months later, he also won the Easter Bowl, a second-tier Grade B1 event.

With these two big titles, Tiafoe was the top seed at the 2014 French Open junior tournament, where he was upset in the second round. He then lost at Wimbledon to the eventual champion Noah Rubin. 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. That was the last ITF tournament he would play at the junior level. In August 2015, Tiafoe capped his junior career by winning the USTA Junior National Championship at the age of 17. Tiafoe defeated Stefan Kozlov in the final in a five-set match, taking the first two sets and the last. With the win, he earned a wild card into the main draw at the 2015 US Open.

Junior Grand Slam results – Singles

Australian Open: A (-)
French Open: 2R (2014)
Wimbledon: 3R (2014)
US Open: SF (2014)

Professional career

2014–15: French and US Open debuts

Tiafoe made his ATP Tour main draw debut at the age of 16 and a half after being granted a wildcard by his home tournament, the 2014 Washington Open. He lost to Evgeny Donskoy in his first career tour-level match. At the 2014 US Open, Tiafoe received a wildcard into the qualifying draw but lost to 11th seed Tatsuma Ito. In the doubles tournament, he was awarded a wildcard into the main draw with Michael Mmoh. The two teenagers picked up their first career win at the ATP level in the first round by defeating veterans Víctor Estrella Burgos and Teymuraz Gabashvili, before losing in the second round. In March 2015, he claimed his first professional title by winning the ITF Futures tournament at Bakersfield. He officially turned pro the following month.

In April 2015, Tiafoe broke through onto the ATP Challenger level. After starting the month ranked below the top 800 in the world, he put together a string of solid results that pushed him into the top 300 in the world by the time the first set of ATP rankings were published in May. Even though his ranking was too low to gain direct entry into any of the three American clay-court Challenger events, Tiafoe reached the quarterfinals of Sarasota as a qualifier, then reached the semifinals of Savannah as a wildcard, and finally reached his first career Challenger final at Tallahassee with a special exempt. At the last tournament, he defeated top seed Facundo Bagnis to notch his first win against a top-100 opponent. Tiafoe's performance at these events was good enough to win the 2015 Har-Tru Challenge and earn the only American wildcard spot into the main draw of the 2015 French Open. In his Grand Slam debut, Tiafoe lost his first-round match to Martin Kližan. Nonetheless, he became the first 17-year-old American to play in the main draw of the men's singles tournament since Michael Chang and Pete Sampras in 1989.

At the Winston-Salem Open in August, Tiafoe entered the main draw as a qualifier and won his first ATP Tour-level match, after defeating James Duckworth in a third-set tiebreaker. He then made his main-draw debut at the US Open with the wildcard he earned from winning the junior national championship. He would lose to the No. 22 seed Viktor Troicki in the first round. After the US Open, Tiafoe continued his success on the Challenger Tour and reached a second final at Knoxville, losing to Dan Evans. Driven by his success at the Challenger level, Tiafoe climbed to a year-end ranking of 176, cracking the top 200 a few months before turning 18 years old.

2016: Challenger titles and top 100

In the 2016 season, Tiafoe consistently produced deep Challenger-level tournament runs but was unable to break through in his few opportunities at the ATP Tour level. At the 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. This would turn out to be his only ATP match win of the year. He lost 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 hardcourts 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 in North America. He defeated Marcelo Arévalo in the final to capture his first Challenger title and climb to a career-high ranking of No. 123 in the world. Tiafoe was awarded a wildcard 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. He finished the year ranked 108, making him the highest-ranked player at his age for the second year in a row.