The incredible rise and inspirational story of Frances Tiafoe
Not so long ago, Frances Tiafoe was taunted for having holes in his shoes. Now the American is doing the laughing as he gears up for the biggest match of his life. Read his story
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From being taunted for having holes in his shoes to tearing holes in the game of some of the world’s biggest players.
Is this one of the most inspirational stories in tennis?
Frances Tiafoe has stormed to an Australian Open quarter-final clash with Rafael Nadal, but on Sunday night revealed more of the upbringing that led him to becoming one of the hottest players at Melbourne Park.
The American – who turned 21 on Sunday – broke down after his boilover win over Grigor Dimitrov, having begun training at a Maryland tennis academy while his father worked in maintenance after immigrating from Sierra Leone in the early ’90s with Tiafoe’s mother, Alphina.
And it was a trip to the West African nation that Tiafoe says gave him new appreciation and perspective of his life in America.
“It was more my pops who wanted me to go there,” he said.
“He thought I was getting spoiled. He said, ‘you need to get you learned something, get you cultured’.
“Came back definitely thinking different. Came back appreciating everything.
“People talking about me and (brother) Franklin over there. Oh, you know, you have people making fun of us for wearing PE shirts to play tennis, holes in our shoes.
“He said, ‘you guys don’t even understand. You guys got American passports, got the opportunity to do something great. Go and do it’.
“After that, put things in perspective for me. I ain’t ever act spoiled ever again.”
Tiafoe and his twin brother, Franklin, took up tennis as youngsters when their father Constant maintained the private club.
The trio lived in a makeshift apartment there, with a New York Times report in 2012 detailing how Constant would “often slept only three hours a night” amid lengthy work hours and a salary of just $21,000 (US) per year, living in a back room of the centre where annual fees would have been upwards of $25,000 a year.
It was Tiafoe – who said on Sunday that he had “worked my ass off” - that declared at the age of 11 that he would become a tennis pro and change his family’s life.
“I mean, yeah, it’s crazy, man (to now be in the quarter-finals),” he said.
“Obviously if you guys know anything about me, the story in tennis, I obviously wasn’t a normal tennis story.
“The beginning of my career, I was playing for them, trying to do everything for my family. Obviously now I put them in a great place. Now I’m trying to do it for me.”
There were “a ton of wealthy guys” at the academy Tiafoe said.
But hard work trumped a healthy bank balance.
“You got cats rolling in there with chauffeurs, all that,” he said.
“Look, I’m not saying you can’t make it if you grew up from a wealthy situation. I mean, a ton of people have. But obviously that gave me an incentive, a reason to give, a reason to work every day, understand why you do it.
“Obviously it’s how bad do you really want to be successful essentially. Like, what does that really mean to you? Why are you doing it?
“I mean, obviously you make money, and then what? If there’s actually something that is more to you, it’s easier to get in the gym and do it each and every day.”