With a win at the U.S. Tennis Association Boys 18 National Championship on Sunday, Frances Tiafoe will now learn how to handle higher expectations on tennis’ biggest stage as he gets ready for the US Open.
In Kalamazoo, Michigan, Tiafoe beat fellow American Stefan Kozlov in a five set final to clinch the title and a wildcard in to the US Open main draw. Tiafoe was up two sets to love before Kozlov stormed back and forced a fifth and deciding set before ultimately falling just short. The match lasted over four hours and both players struggled with cramping.
Both players showed great maturity for their age, showing appreciation for each other; Kozlov gave a heartfelt speech about how much Tiafoe deserved it. Tiafoe went as far as to say he hopes they will compete against each other for a long time on tennis’ biggest stages.
The US Open won’t be the 17-year-old’s first Grand Slam as he also got a wild card earlier into this year’s French Open by winning the Har-Tru Wild Card Challenge. Tiafoe earned the wildcard by making it to the quarterfinals of Sarasota, which was his first-ever Challenger event. He followed it up with semifinal and final appearances in Savannah and Tallahassee respectfully.
Tiafoe has received a total of seven Wild Cards to date, including a few into ATP 250 events. He is currently at a career high singles ranking of #272. Not bad considering he started the year having to qualify for a Future event in Sunrise, Florida, before making it all the way to the semifinals of the main draw.
While Tiafoe has had success on the Futures and Challenger circuits, he still has yet to win a main draw match on the ATP tour level. In fact, both Tiafoe and Kozlov are 0-4 in their careers in tour level matches. Tiafoe played very well in an exhibition against Andy Roddick earlier this year in Atlanta. The youngster did end up losing the exhibition but it was a good experience for him and a fun way to showcase an up-and-coming American player.
The Maryland native played in qualifying last year at the US Open but fell in the first round to Tatsuma Ito in three sets. He also played doubles with Michael Mmoh, making it to the second round before losing to doubles specialists Scott Lipsky and Rajeev Ram. Tiafoe famously turned pro and signed earlier this year with Jay-Z’s Roc Nation in April after winning the Orange Bowl and Easter Bowl in 2014.
It is too early to tell if Tiafoe is going to be the standout of his generation. Other potential standouts around Tiafoe’s age are Kozlov, Taylor Fritz, Tommy Paul, Jared Donaldson, and Riley Opelka, just to name a few. Tiafoe is definitely naturally gifted but he is still prone to showing too much negative emotion on court and can sometimes lose focus. By all accounts, the one thing he has going for him is he does seem humble and grounded, which is not true for all young up and coming tennis players.
From the sounds of his post-match interview in Michigan it didn’t seem like Tiafoe would mind having an American rival and there is a generation that has not been able to enjoy a Pete Sampras and Andre Agassi rivalry, let alone the John McEnroe and Jimmy Connors rivalry.
With top American John Isner nearing 30 and so much debate about who is going to be the next American star there is one thing for sure: Tiafoe is doing everything he can to position himself to be in front of the class. Regardless, it will be interesting to see how Tiafoe handles himself on tennis’ biggest stages.
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