Frances Tiafoe is now having one of the most amazing Grand Slam streaks by an American male in the last decade.
However, the 24-year-old tennis player from Maryland said that his career was never “supposed to be like this.”
Wednesday, Tiafoe defeated world No. 9 Andrey Rublev in straight sets to prolong his unbelievable run at the 2022 US Open. Before becoming the first American man to reach the grand slam semifinals since 2006, Tiafoe reminded the media how unlikely his journey to tennis fame — and this moment in particular — were.
The son of Sierra Leonean immigrants, Tiafoe and his twin brother practically grew up around the game. Part of their youth was spent sleeping on massage tables at the Junior Tennis Champions Center in College Park, where their father worked as a maintenance man.
They simply began playing the sport for convenience and to “get out of our neighbourhood” in Prince George’s County, near Washington, D.C.
“Once we got in the game of tennis, it was like my dad was like, it would be awesome if you guys can use this as a full scholarship to school,” Tiafoe said during his press conference on Monday. “I mean, we couldn’t afford a university. So use the game of tennis.”
As time progressed, however, it became more apparent that Tiafoe’s potential exceeded these rather modest goals. At the ages of 14 and 15, he began to make a name for himself by winning numerous renowned juniors competitions.
At the age of 16, he was a professional.
“I just had a big passion for the game,” Tiafoe recalled, adding: “Watching Serena and Venus [Williams] play finals of Grand Slams at that time, when I was super young, I was like, ‘How cool would it be to play Wimbledon, to play on Arthur Ashe, and stuff like that?’”
Now that he has experienced it for himself, he can confidently state that it is quite awesome.
“It’s something to tell the kids, the grandkids.”
Frances Tiafoe becomes the first Black 🇺🇸 man to reach a #USOpen semifinal since Arthur Ashe in 1972.
He did it on the court named after Ashe. #BeOpen pic.twitter.com/IEJtqCe2vo
— US Open Tennis (@usopen) September 7, 2022