Because the consummate team player on the rare occasions that it’s called for in a highly individual sport like tennis, it hurt Frances Tiafoe to his heart to not play within the Paris Olympics just a number of weeks ago.
“Really tough decision for me, demanding,” Tiafoe told The Post just five days before he begins his U.S. Open campaign for the Grand Slam glory that has eluded him — and each other male American tennis player — since Andy Roddick won his home major way back in 2003.
“I like representing my country. I like being American, I like where I’m from,” said the 26-year-old Maryland native, who’s the son of Sierra Leonean immigrants. “But you realize … it paid off.”
Indeed, after Tiafoe passed up going from the grass of Wimbledon back to the clay — not his favorite surface — of the French Open site, he’s coming in hot to the last slam of the 12 months while other players are seemingly burned out.
The shrewd move resulted in Tiafoe making Monday’s final on the Cincinnati Open, the last big tune-up before the U.S. Open, and sending him back into the Top 20 — No. 20 to be exact — of the rankings.
He’s back where he belongs, joining Taylor Fritz (No. 12), Ben Shelton (No. 13), Tommy Paul (No. 14) and Sebastian Korda (No. 16) to make it five Americans within the Top 20 for the primary time since October 1996.
After reaching a career-high No. 10 in June 2023, Tiafoe was barely seeded — at No. 29 — in the highest 32 players when Wimbledon got here around the primary week of July.
But then something clicked in Big Foe — as he’s affectionately known — and he pushed eventual champion Carlos Alcaraz to 5 scintillating sets in a third-round thriller, losing 5-7, 6-2, 4-6, 7-6 (2), 6-2.
But having reunited on Arthur Ashe Stadium earlier Wednesday — the identical court where they staged one other epic five-setter within the 2022 U.S. Open semifinals before Alcaraz went on to win his first of 4 Grand Slams — there remains to be bromance within the air for the pair.
“I actually have the final word respect for that guy,” said Tiafoe of his 21-year-old foe. “And so to see him telling me today, ‘You recognize, these are the variety of runs [at the Cincinnati Open] you should be having,’ and, ‘I need to see you proceed to do this stuff’ … he knows me doing well helps the sport.
“And that’s only a fact. I feel us, with our personality and stuff, we are able to really proceed to assist push this game forward. And, you realize, I feel we’ve duty to the sport to present it our all and proceed to do well.”
Tiafoe — who also recently began working with David Witt, former coach of ladies’s tennis stars Venus Williams and Jessica Pegula — can be already feeling an obligation to present back while still in the center of his profession.
That’s the reason he took part in a clinic for the local National Junior Tennis League on Wednesday.
And he also has his Frances Tiafoe Fund with the USTA.
Having gotten the chance to play the sport because his father was the pinnacle of maintenance on the Junior Tennis Champions Center in College Park, Maryland, Tiafoe now wants other kids to see themselves in him.
“I used to be once in that position, and now to find a way to pay it forward, that just gives me life,” he said. “I like seeing these kids joyful, seeing me. I like having the ability to put some smiles on kids faces. That’s what it was for me growing up.”
And he added with amusing, it’s higher to do “after I’m as relevant as you’re going to be … and really have an effect, slightly than after I’m old and retired and other people don’t really remember you.”
Because the consummate team player on the rare occasions that it’s called for in a highly individual sport like tennis, it hurt Frances Tiafoe to his heart to not play within the Paris Olympics just a number of weeks ago.
“Really tough decision for me, demanding,” Tiafoe told The Post just five days before he begins his U.S. Open campaign for the Grand Slam glory that has eluded him — and each other male American tennis player — since Andy Roddick won his home major way back in 2003.
“I like representing my country. I like being American, I like where I’m from,” said the 26-year-old Maryland native, who’s the son of Sierra Leonean immigrants. “But you realize … it paid off.”
Indeed, after Tiafoe passed up going from the grass of Wimbledon back to the clay — not his favorite surface — of the French Open site, he’s coming in hot to the last slam of the 12 months while other players are seemingly burned out.
The shrewd move resulted in Tiafoe making Monday’s final on the Cincinnati Open, the last big tune-up before the U.S. Open, and sending him back into the Top 20 — No. 20 to be exact — of the rankings.
He’s back where he belongs, joining Taylor Fritz (No. 12), Ben Shelton (No. 13), Tommy Paul (No. 14) and Sebastian Korda (No. 16) to make it five Americans within the Top 20 for the primary time since October 1996.
After reaching a career-high No. 10 in June 2023, Tiafoe was barely seeded — at No. 29 — in the highest 32 players when Wimbledon got here around the primary week of July.
But then something clicked in Big Foe — as he’s affectionately known — and he pushed eventual champion Carlos Alcaraz to 5 scintillating sets in a third-round thriller, losing 5-7, 6-2, 4-6, 7-6 (2), 6-2.
But having reunited on Arthur Ashe Stadium earlier Wednesday — the identical court where they staged one other epic five-setter within the 2022 U.S. Open semifinals before Alcaraz went on to win his first of 4 Grand Slams — there remains to be bromance within the air for the pair.
“I actually have the final word respect for that guy,” said Tiafoe of his 21-year-old foe. “And so to see him telling me today, ‘You recognize, these are the variety of runs [at the Cincinnati Open] you should be having,’ and, ‘I need to see you proceed to do this stuff’ … he knows me doing well helps the sport.
“And that’s only a fact. I feel us, with our personality and stuff, we are able to really proceed to assist push this game forward. And, you realize, I feel we’ve duty to the sport to present it our all and proceed to do well.”
Tiafoe — who also recently began working with David Witt, former coach of ladies’s tennis stars Venus Williams and Jessica Pegula — can be already feeling an obligation to present back while still in the center of his profession.
That’s the reason he took part in a clinic for the local National Junior Tennis League on Wednesday.
And he also has his Frances Tiafoe Fund with the USTA.
Having gotten the chance to play the sport because his father was the pinnacle of maintenance on the Junior Tennis Champions Center in College Park, Maryland, Tiafoe now wants other kids to see themselves in him.
“I used to be once in that position, and now to find a way to pay it forward, that just gives me life,” he said. “I like seeing these kids joyful, seeing me. I like having the ability to put some smiles on kids faces. That’s what it was for me growing up.”
And he added with amusing, it’s higher to do “after I’m as relevant as you’re going to be … and really have an effect, slightly than after I’m old and retired and other people don’t really remember you.”
