Frances Tiafoe

[Damian]

02.04.2018

Najwyższy ranking w karierze: 58

[Damian]

But he was far from the only American who impressed on the opening day of play. #NextGenATP American Frances Tiafoe, who won his maiden ATP World Tour title at the Delray Beach Open, got his clay campaign off to a good start with a straightforward win against wild card Mackenzie McDonald 6-3, 6-3 in 64 minutes.

It is the 20-year-old's first victory in Houston after losing in the first round the past two years. It is also Tiafoe's first tour-level clay-court victory, after losing the first five matches of his career on the surface. But that early record is not indicative of how he feels about clay.

"I really like it. I really enjoy it. Ton of clay courts where I grew up in College Park in Maryland, so I think it's my best surface," Tiafoe said. "I think it's more fun playing [on clay]. You can really see who has intangibles, moving and sliding and playing. But I played really well tonight."

http://www.atpworldtour.com/en/news/ver ... 018-monday

[robpal]

Frances po ograniu McDonalda ponownie przesunął się w górę rankingu.

53 Mischa Zverev 932
54 Frances Tiafoe 913
55 Tennys Sandgren 903

[Damian]

16.04.2018

Najwyższy ranking w karierze: 56

[grzes430]

[Damian]

- Jestem zadowolony, że pozostałem w turnieju. Czuję się swobodnie i wychodzę na kort po to, by cieszyć się grą. To był mecz, w którym niemal wszystko układało się po mojej myśli. Gilles wprawdzie miał kilka szans, ale zawsze potrafiłem się obronić - mówił Tiafoe, który w 1/4 finału zagra z Simone Bolellim. Włoch pokonał 3:6, 7:5, 6:2 Federico Delbonisa.

https://sportowefakty.wp.pl/tenis/75235 ... l-meczbole

[DUN I LOVE]

Muller i zniszczony przez kontuzje Bolelli to nie jest najwyższa półka na cegle, ale i tak świetny wynik Francesa. Trzeba poczekać na ile to korzystne losowanie, a na ile faktyczne umiejętności Tiafoe w grze na cegle.

[Mario]

Dobrze gra na cegle, z grubsza to samo co na hardzie, więc czegoś tam oczekiwać można.

[Damian]

Tiafoe Stuns Defending Champ Carreno Busta In Estoril

Spoiler:

#NextGenATP American will face Portugal's Sousa in the final
#NextGenATP American Frances Tiafoe saved three match points in his first-round victory over countryman Tennys Sandgren at the Millennium Estoril Open on Monday.

Five days later, the 20-year-old stunned defending champion Pablo Carreno Busta 6-2, 6-3 to reach his second ATP World Tour final.

Tiafoe, who won his maiden ATP World Tour title at the Delray Beach Open in February (d. Gojowczyk), won 77 per cent of first-serve points to reach his first tour-level final on clay after just 74 minutes. Carreno Busta was appearing in his third tour-level semi-final of the season, and second in as many weeks, after also reaching the final four at the Miami Open presented by Itaú (l. to Zverev) and the Barcelona Open Banc Sabadell (l. to Tsitsipas).

In the first set, Tiafoe broke in the opening game to establish an early advantage before securing a second break to serve for the set at 5-2. After successfully taking a one-set advantage, Tiafoe once again broke through on Carreno Busta's serve to take another early lead. After failing to convert break point chances at 3-1 and 4-2, Tiafoe clinched his fourth break of the match on his first match point to set up a final encounter with home favourite Joao Sousa.

Watch Live

Despite entering his home event with a 0-3 record, Sousa, after beating #NextGenATP Greek Stefanos Tsitsipas 6-4, 1-6, 7-6(4), now stands just one win away from becoming the first Portuguese champion in tournament history.

The home favourite, who already enters the history books as the first Portuguese finalist in Estoril, booked a place in his 10th ATP World Tour final after two hours and seven minutes after converting his third match point in a final-set tie-break. Sousa has now won 14 of his past 18 tour-level matches, dating back to the beginning of March. He began the season with a 3-6 tour-level record.

Sousa secured the only break of the first set to take a one-set advantage, before the in-form 19-year-old levelled the match with two breaks of serve in the second set. The third set was dominated by serve, with just two of the 12 games reaching deuce and no break points on offer. Sousa raced out to a 4/0 lead in the decisive tie-break and, despite losing his first two match points, clinched his place in the final on his third opportunity.

Tsitsipas was bidding to become the first teenager since Juan Martin del Potro in 2008 (Los Angeles, Washington) to reach consecutive ATP World Tour finals.

Did You Know?
Frances Tiafoe is just the third man to defeat Pablo Carreno Busta in 16 matches at the Millennium Estoril Open. Carreno Busta lost to Nick Kyrgios in the 2015 semi-finals and Nicolas Almagro in the 2016 final before winning the title in 2017 and reaching the semi-finals this year.

http://www.atpworldtour.com/en/news/car ... 8-saturday

[DUN I LOVE]

Dobrze gra na cegle, z grubsza to samo co na hardzie, więc czegoś tam oczekiwać można.

Potwierdził, że coś tam potrafi.

Coś szwankuje strona z rankingiem live, ale Frances dziś klepnął nowy, rekordowy ranking.

[Damian]

Finał Estoril.


Daily Express

Frances Tiafoe - przegrane finały (1):
2018 (1) Estoril

1-1 w finałach ATP.

[DUN I LOVE]

24-36 w tej chwili na przestrzeni kariery w ATP Tour (15-7 w 2018).

[Barty]

[Damian]

#NextGenATP To Watch In Roland Garros

Spoiler:

American Frances Tiafoe: 20 years old, No. 61 in the ATP Rankings
Three years ago, Frances Tiafoe was a scrawny 17-year-old, wearing a wide smile and feeling overjoyed to be making his Grand Slam debut in Paris. The American, the youngest player in the draw, had won the USTA's wild card for the clay-court Grand Slam and faced Slovakian veteran Martin Klizan, then a two-time clay-court titlist. Klizan dominated 6-2, 6-1, 6-4.

Now 20, Tiafoe comes to Paris in a far better place. He's an automatic entry into the Grand Slam, and he's carrying belief from the best five months of his career. In February, Tiafoe won his maiden ATP World Tour title at the Delray Beach Open, beating 2017 Next Gen ATP Finals champion Hyeon Chung, Shapovalov and Juan Martin del Potro en route. Earlier this month, Tiafoe made his first ATP World Tour clay-court final at the Millennium Estoril Open (l. to Sousa), knocking off Carreno Busta 6-2, 6-3 in the semi-finals.

This fortnight, Tiafoe won't be pleased because he's simply making an appearance. This will be his third main-draw showing. He fell to Italy's Fabio Fognini in five sets last year.

http://www.atpworldtour.com/en/news/nex ... arros-2018

[Damian]

Open Interview: Frances Tiafoe

Spoiler:

“I did everything but win the match.”

That’s how rising American star Frances Tiafoe remembers his first-round loss to Roger Federer under the bright lights of Arthur Ashe Stadium at the US Open last summer.

Tiafoe was up early and down late, such was the rollercoaster of momentum shifts. Then still a teenager, Tiafoe saved two match points against one of the greatest players to ever pick up a racquet before finally succumbing to the maestro, one of just four players to ever push Federer to five sets in the first round of a major.

Tiafoe was proud of the way he competed, the way he clawed back into a match against the 20-time Grand Slam men's singles champion that he was always second-favorite to win.

But then something else occurred to Tiafoe: If he wanted to avoid the biggest names in tennis on the first day of a Slam, he had to improve his ranking so he was one of those seeds.

The same thing happened five months later in Melbourne, where he drew world No. 10 Juan Martin del Potro in the first round, and then again this week in Paris, where he lost to 12th-seeded Sam Querrey in straight sets. In fact, in nine Grand Slam first-round matches, Tiafoe has faced a seeded player six times. He's lost all six matches.

Instead of becoming frustrated, though, Tiafoe is using it as a learning moment and an opportunity for growth.

“The last couple years, I’ve taken a lot of heartbreakers, a lot of tight matches,” Tiafoe said from Paris last week. “Now, finally, I’m getting over the hump and winning these matches. You start seeing the game a little different. Your confidence and the way you carry yourself is completely different. I think that’s huge for me, and I think that’s why when I play against anybody in the world, I got a chance.”

Tiafoe’s backstory is well documented. The son of immigrants from Sierra Leone, he and twin brother Franklin grew up at the Junior Tennis Champions Center in College Park, Md., where his father worked as a maintenance man and lived.

Tiafoe took a keen interest in the players training at the center, and he started playing there at the age of four, eventually working with coach Misha Kouznetsov, who played a key role during his formative years.

He later transitioned to the USTA's player development center in Boca Raton, Fla., as a teenager and now spends time training at the USTA National Campus in Orlando, some two hours drive north.

Tiafoe broke into the Top 1,000 in February 2015 and was inside the Top 200 by the end of that calendar year. He debuted inside the Top 100 at No. 97 in January 2017 and reached a career-high No. 56 in April this year.

Today, Tiafoe’s coach Robby Ginepri is hesitant to say just how far his charge can go, but he acknowledged that avoiding seeds in the first round of majors is a big motivating factor for his continued growth.

“I hate putting numbers on players,” Ginepri said this week. “Athletes are their own worst critics; they don’t need any added pressure. But something he said after the Federer match last year was that he felt like he played really good tennis, and he hated having to draw Fed first round, so he has to get seeded in Grand Slams so that doesn’t happen again. Our goal at the beginning of the year was the Top 32, so that would at least open up a few rounds before you get one of the top dogs.”

Tiafoe’s season got off to somewhat of a slow start – he lost four of his first five matches – but he steadied the ship at the inaugural New York Open and has been on the ascent ever since.

After reaching the quarterfinals of the event on Long Island, Tiafoe won the Delray Beach Open, reached the fourth round of the Miami Open and contested the championship match of the Millennium Estoril Open on the clay of Estoril, Portugal.

Among those wins was a victory over del Potro in the second round of Delray Beach. In terms of ranking, the win over No. 10 del Potro was the second-biggest victory of his career behind only a victory against world No. 7 Alexander Zverev in Cincinnati last year. But Tiafoe did not grow up idolizing Zverev as he did del Potro.

Playing the champions you watched on TV as a kid is one thing. Beating them is something entirely different – and something Tiafoe has had to learn to process as he’s moved up the tennis ladder.

“On the tour, I respect everyone. I wouldn’t say I look up to anyone on the tour anymore,” said Tiafoe, who cites NBA superstar LeBron James and actor Will Smith as inspirations. “I look at them as competitors now. I think that was one of the problems when I first started. I was still looking up to guys in the locker room or staring guys down. I was like, ‘Ooooh, that’s Rafa [Nadal], that’s [Gael] Monfils.’ Now I think of them all as competitors.”

August 29, 2016 - Frances Tiafoe of the United States in action against John Isner of the United States during the 2016 US Open at the USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center in Flushing, NY. (Darren Carroll/USTA)
Photo by: (Darren Carroll/USTA)


Part of that adjustment is the natural learning curve of a professional athlete. Sure, there’s the physical part – having the tools to compete – but there's also the mental part – realizing you’re good enough to beat players who were once just larger-than-life personalities.

Ginepri says both parts are slowly becoming second nature to Tiafoe, who only turned 20 in January and was still in elementary school when del Potro won the US Open in 2009.

“We have a saying: 'Respect all, fear none,'” Ginepri said. “Anyone’s capable of upsetting anyone out there; these guys are all so good. You have to give every player respect, but not too much respect, where you’re afraid to take them down. That’s something we’ve been talking about. Everyone deals with situations differently. He seems to rise to the occasion, the big match, the big stage.”

While the story of Tiafoe’s childhood defined his teenage years, he’s now looking to move forward. Still, that upbringing means he’s humble enough to both appreciate where he came from and recognize the opportunities in front of him.

“I probably would have laughed,” Tiafoe said of his younger self imagining his future success. “It’s crazy, crazy. I always told my mom, my father, that I’m going to put them in a situation that they’ll never believe. I told them that I’ll be playing the US Open, be Top 10 in the world. Tennis is bigger than myself. I’m not only playing for my family and myself, but I’m playing [for everyone] across the globe. When they watch me, they will say they want to be Frances Tiafoe when they grow up. I had a lot of great examples when I was coming through as a kid, so I just want to be an example for them.

“ to be great. I looked up to the greats. Being great always motivates me. They can impact people in so many different ways. I want my voice to be heard. I want to give back to a ton of people and give advice to kids. That’s part of what motivates me – to be in a position where I can not only help myself and my family but the game. It’s bigger than just hitting forehands and backhands to me.”

But to get to where he wants to be, where he feels like he can impact the next generation of players, it’s working on the fundamentals of the game, the forehands and the backhands, that he is striving to perfect.

Ginepri says he is working with him on locating his serve and stringing together multiple points in a row. He’s pleased with the progress Tiafoe has made with both his transition game and his backhand slice, and he says that once he gains a little more consistency, the sky is the limit.

Once the physical parts of his game come together, then it’s just the mental side of his game.

“Just dealing with day-to-day menial tasks,” was how Ginepri described the next areas for growth, calling his mentee a "social butterfly" who wants to chat and be friendly with everyone. “It’s just getting him to stay a little bit more tunnel vision when he’s at the events.

“He’s been asking more questions about his game and situational stuff, patterns, and that’s good to see. You always want to push a player as far as you can on and off the court, but sometimes they’re not ready yet. But he’s grown as a person on and off the court, and the progress and the results are clicking now. There’s not one thing that helps someone be successful. It’s all the little things that add up.”

Once they add up, expect big things from the social butterfly with the thunderous groundstrokes.

“I’m making a pretty good name for myself now, and I feel confident enough when I play anyone that if I bring my best stuff, I have a chance,” said Tiafoe, who prefers calling himself a "character" or a "nice, loving guy." “I’m not telling you that if I play my best I will beat anyone in the world, but I definitely feel like I have a chance.

“If I end the year in the Top 30, I would count that as an extremely successful year. Inside the Top 50 would be great, but inside the Top 30 would be unbelievable. Higher than that, I would be on cloud nine. I’m trying to put in the work every day and be true to myself. If I could snag a couple more titles along the way, that would be cool. Winning is fun. Playing on Sundays is fun.”

http://www.usopen.org/en_US/news/articl ... ml?chip=15

[robpal]

Wygrał swój pierwszy mecz w Londynie Frances i teraz grozi mu nowy najwyższy ranking.

51 Jared Donaldson 945
52 Frances Tiafoe 940
53 Jo-Wilfried Tsonga 940

[Damian]

[Barty]

Tiafoe Battles Past Mayer To Reach Queen's QFs

Spoiler:

American will meet Chardy in quarter-finals
Next Gen ATP Finals contender Frances Tiafoe notched his 18th win of the season, the most among American players on the ATP World Tour in 2018, beating Argentina's Leonardo Mayer 6-4, 2-6, 6-4 on Wednesday at the Fever-Tree Championships.

"I thought it was a really good match," said Tiafoe. I played him once before in Shanghai in the last-round of qualifying. It was another tight match. I won 6-4 in the third set... In the second set I had a little lapse, but the third set was extremely tight and I was happy to get through."

The Delray Beach Open champion hit 10 aces and dropped just two points behind his first serve in the final set to reach his first quarter-final at The Queen's Club after one hour and 50 minutes. Mayer, who recorded just his second Top 10 win in 31 matches on Tuesday (d. Anderson), drops to 14-14 at tour-level this season.

"I am pretty pumped," said Tiafoe. "Grass hasn't been my favorite surface at all in the past here. I had unbelievable preperation, staying here after Roland Garros, practising on grass for a couple weeks... With a bunch of great players. It's paying off, luckily."


Tiafoe, bidding to reach his third tour-level semi-final of the season, will face Libema Open finalist Jeremy Chardy.

"Jeremy is a great friend of mine... So far he's been having an unbelievable grass court season," said Tiafoe. "He won a big Challenger [in Surbiton] and made the finals last week in 's-Hertogenbosch. Obviously he's feeling good."


Chardy progressed to the last eight after 83 minutes, defeating Sydney International titlist Daniil Medvedev 7-6(6), 6-3. The Frenchman, won who the Surbiton Trophy on the ATP Challenger Tour before reaching the championship match in 's-Hertogenbosch last week, didn't face a single break point en route to victory.

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Did You Know?
Frances Tiafoe came into the Fever-Tree Championships with a 1-2 FedEx ATP Win/Loss Record on grass.

https://www.atpworldtour.com/en/news/ci ... -wednesday

[Damian]

25.06.2018

Najwyższy ranking w karierze: 52

[arti]