No matter how talented the players are, they also believe in their own superstitions. Serena Williams is particular about her socks, Rafael Nadal follows a procedure of placing his water bottles after every break, and Novak Djokovic believes letting the ball bounce a frustrating number of times earns him good results. The list goes on. Recently, the American rising star, Frances Tiafoe, forbade a reporter from praising him as he believed it might ruin his record. Tiafoe beat Dominic Stephan Stricker in his second round without losing a set.

When the reporter talked about tie breaks and compared Tiafoe to Djokovic, the former did not let the discussion proceed further.

Frances Tiafoe does not like to talk about his tie-break records

The American had to encounter two tie-breakers in two of his matches, and he won them both. The reporters asked him about his exceptional record of tie-breakers after his 2nd round win at the Wimbledon Championships, while comparing his record to that of the 23-time Grand Slam champion. Tiafoe jokingly shut him down by asking not to jinx his record. The American star said, “Don’t jinx me, bro. Don’t be doing all that. You’re talking about breakers, don’t jinx me.” The 10th seed obviously did not want his record to be broken by being hailed for it.

Revealing his mindset in tie-breaker situations, the twenty-five-year-old said, “You better win the breaker. The biggest thing is try to serve well. If you can get free points obviously that puts a lot of pressure on guys. Serving well is huge. I remember all those breakers at the Open, I was having at least two, three aces a breaker, where you don’t have to play a rally or anything like that. Just one shot and done. I think a high-percentage first serve helps in a breaker, especially on grass.”

Tiafoe has won two tie-breakers against Andrey Rublev in the quarter-finals of the 2022 US Open. In the semi-final, he lost to Carlos Alcaraz, but the two sets Tiafoe won were tie-breakers. The American further explained what gets him through the tie-breakers and also how he manages to win all of them.

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Being tough and aggressive are the key ingredients to win a tie-breaker

The Break-Point star said, “It’s good being tough, being clutch, you’ve got to back yourself. Like even when down and out, it doesn’t take much to sneak out of a breaker.” Speaking of his tie-breaker win against Stricker, Tiafoe said that the former almost made it before the American did a forehand pass at 11-all, after which he was serving at 12-11, which concluded the tie-break.

According to Tiafoe, being aggressive and improving the punching game like there is no tomorrow does the trick. He is set to play against Grigor Dimitrov tonight in his third round. Both Tiafoe and Dimitrov reached the third round without dropping a set. The American finds the matches from these rounds really challenging, as they only play against the best of the best.

Who do you think will win? Are you team Tiafoe or team Dimitrov? Let us know in the comments.

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