Frances Tiafoe has long advocated for a shake-up in men’s tennis. He recognizes the difficulty in changing a sport traditionally resistant to innovation. With the era of the “Big Three” (Federer, Nadal, Djokovic) nearing its end, Tiafoe ponders the future. Interestingly, while some might expect him to mention Andy Murray as a potential successor, Tiafoe surprisingly champions the rise of young star ‘SinCaraz’ to carry the torch.

Tiafoe has always hailed Murray as his “true inspiration” and he shares a deep “love and respect” for the Brit. Recently, while giving an interview with The Telegraph, Tiafoe said, “It’s going to sound crazy but out of all the big four, I probably have the most respect for that guy (Murray). When you think about his career, his love for the game, being resilient, staying with it – this guy has lost in semis, finals and continued to come back – until he did it.” He highlighted the fact that previously people used to question whether he should be counted in the ‘Big Four’ but Murray proved his mettle over the years.

Frances Tiafoe feels Andy Murray is someone who should be “worshiped” because there aren’t many guys, who put their bodies on the line and play with a metal hip. However, surprisingly, while speaking about learnings tennis can take from the rapid progress of the WNBA, the American tennis star literally snubbed the one whom he admired the most among the ‘Big Four’. He said, “I think tennis was always in the right place, really in a good place with all the ‘Big Three’. But I think it needs to get some moment of personality or maybe conflict with also great entertainment.” He further went on to add, “I think guys like Alcaraz and Sinner, I mean those guys are gonna do good things. I think matchups like that are gonna help the game. We need them to do some cool stuff…”

Tiafoe is known for his love for basketball and he’s also a dedicated NBA fan who frequently attends the matches. He thinks even the WNBA has been making immense progress in recent years and Caitlin Clark’s arrival has helped them gain a fair bit of momentum. So, this shows how important it is to have faces in a tournament to make rapid progress. All the franchises in the league have witnessed significant growth in their revenues.

Approximately around 400,000 fans attended WNBA games from the tip of the season through the end of May. That’s in fact the most through the first month of the season in almost twenty-six years. For tennis to make similar progress, Tiafoe wants to attract the new generation to the tennis court, but how?

Frances Tiafoe has a suggestion or two for the growth of the racquet sport

Tiafoe has always been a big fan of pushing women in sports. According to various reports, women’s sports could bring over $1 billion in 2024 through viewership. That’s a record-breaking figure and superstars like Clark, Gauff, and Swiatek have an enormous role to play in this. Tennis as a sport has grown a lot over the years. The current world number one in women’s tennis earned around $2,620,834 from prize money and her net worth is around $10 million. On the other hand, Caitlin Clark has an annual salary of $76,535 and her net worth is reportedly around $5 million. However, Tiafoe believes there is still a lot of room for improvement in the overall growth of the racquet sport.

According to the 26-year-old American tennis star, the game needs to introduce fanfare and more fan engagement to boost its growth. “I think fans should be able to come and go and move around and speak during matches,” Tiafoe said. He believes there is an urgent need for evolvement in today’s tennis, otherwise, the sport is going to be left behind.

Speaking more about the purpose of fan engagements and bringing more crowds, he added, “Bringing the crowd into it and making them feel a part of this crazy journey we call life, I think they are really enjoying that…” So according to Frances Tiafoe, there are certain events that should retain some of their traditions like those at the Wimbledon. Apart from that,  he thinks it’s high time to bring changes to the racquet sport.