Frances Tiafoe is currently in the form of his life! His incredible performances at the 2024 US Open made Serena Williams say, “It’s so good to see now that I’m done. You’re the guy of color playing and doing well.” Tiafoe is now just a step away from becoming the first American man to reach the US Open final in the singles event after Andy Roddick (2006). This is his second SF appearance at this iconic tournament. Everyone is busy celebrating his incredible run, but if we take a look back at his past, we can see how hard it has been for him to reach here. Is it a similar story to that of the Williams sisters? Well, to a certain extent, yes! That’s what the tennis world thinks at the moment.

During an interview with The Players’ Tribune in 2017, France Tiafoe revealed, “I’m the son of immigrant parents from Sierra Leone. When I was a kid, my dad got a construction job at College Park Tennis Club in 1999, a new tennis academy in the D.C. area. While my dad worked, I picked up the game during nights and weekends at the facility when the other kids weren’t around.” He added, “I’d hit against the wall by myself, mimicking techniques I had seen older boys at the academy do. I’d imagine I was playing against Rafa or Roger in the U.S. Open, that those guys were just on the other side of the wall.⁠” Well, that’s how the dream got started and today it has turned into a reality!

In that same interview, he said that at one point in his life, he realized that he couldn’t keep blaming his situation or use it as an excuse. He knew he couldn’t do much about that, but he could definitely work hard to bring a better future and set an example to the whole community. After seeing this viral post, former American tennis star, James Blake tweeted, “This is gonna be a movie one day. And I will be first in line to see it @FTiafoe Or I might have to be the stand-in for that butt.“

Frances Tiafoe has always been a big admirer of James Blake. Back in June 2023, he revealed that “I wear the headband because of him (Blake) when he went bald and started wearing it. This guy’s iconic.” Then if we go further back, during the 2022 US Open when Tiafoe was defeated by Carlos Alcaraz in the SF, Blake was among the first ones to show his support to the 26-year-old American. He put up a tweet stating, “Big Foe @FTiafoe you didn’t let anyone down. In fact, just the opposite. You lifted so many with your play and your heart. Many more chances.” 

Tiafoe will next face Taylor Fritz in the all-American clash at the SF of the 2024 US Open. He has already admitted this is going to be the biggest match of their careers. Both of them have faced seven times in their careers so far and currently, Fritz leads the H2H scoreline by 6-1. Can Tiafoe come up with a better result in the eighth meeting? Time will tell, but getting praised by the legends of the game like Serena Williams and James Blake will surely do wonders for his confidence. Both of them have played a significant role in Frances Tiafoe’s career.

“Two people look like me…” – Frances Tiafoe reveals an interesting story from his childhood

‘Big Foe’ has always been a big fan of the Williams sisters. Both of them played a big role in taking up this beautiful sport as a permanent career. Once during an interview, Frances Tiafoe revealed that watching them play made him feel like, “Wow, how crazy would that be you know to be playing Wimbledon, playing the US Open.” Seeing them achieve the heroics on the courts gave birth to a desire to kind of emulating the same in his career. Together the Williams sisters have won 8 US Open titles. Now it’ll be interesting to see if Tiafoe can keep his one hand on the title with a win against Fritz.

He strongly believes he wouldn’t be where he is today without Serena and Venus Williams. Once, while watching them on the TV screens, he even told his father, “Two people who look like me and I can go and do that, it’s unbelievable.” According to him, even if he somehow manages to get his name in the “same sentence” with these two, he’d feel he really had a “damn good career“. Do you think Frances Tiafoe needs another such pep talk from Serena Williams before his match against Taylor Fritz?

Also, to let you know that a short documentary on Tiafoe was released in 2016 and it was directed by Kirk Fraser. How excited are you to see his life story getting narrated through a movie as just Blake had suggested?