Frances Tiafoe: Watching the Williams sisters helped me realise professional tennis was a possibility for me
As he prepares for Wimbledon, the tennis pro talks to Abi Jackson about his own extraordinary rise and why improving access is so important.
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Your support makes all the difference.Frances Tiafoe believes giving kids access to tennis can “change lives”.
Speaking ahead of Wimbledon, the US tennis pro – who entered the world Top 10 last year – is determined to help more children from all backgrounds get involved with the game. But not just for the purpose of finding future champions.
“I just want kids to be able to have a life that they didn’t think they could have,” said Tiafoe, 26, marking his second year as a Barclays Tennis Ambassador.
“They may become a pro, or they may be a business guy, a lawyer, an entrepreneur – but using the game of tennis. Everything that revolves around tennis, there’s so much opportunity and I think you can build through that.
“If that becomes another Frances Tiafoe, great – but I don’t want that to be the message, because it’s very, very tough to be making money and having a great living playing tennis, but you can change your life through the game of tennis.
“Of course, would I want to help 10 other Frances Tiafoes to come after me – absolutely. But I would also love 40, 50, 100 young guys to graduate, to be the first generation in their family to go to college. That’s a win, that’s monumental. Those are the things that get me going.”
‘Monumental’ is a fitting way to describe Tiafoe’s own rise onto the international tennis scene.
Born in Florida in the late Nineties, his parents had recently emigrated from war-torn Sierra Leone. His father got hired as part of the construction team tasked with building a new Junior Tennis Champions Centre (JTCC) in Maryland, after which he was kept on the site’s caretaker, often spending nights there.
With their mother also working two jobs, including night shifts as a nurse, the young Tiafoe and his brothers spent a lot of time at the training centre with their father, often sleeping there too. The family couldn’t afford tennis equipment of their own, but Tiafoe’s exposure to the game sparked a fascination – and a talent emerged. When this was spotted by coach Misha Kouznetsov, who really “took me under his wing”, things snowballed.
At 15, Tiafoe became the youngest-ever winner of the Orange Bowl, and at 19 was the youngest player in the Top 100. This season is set to see him take on his first Grand Slam since entering the Top 10.
So, what was it about tennis that struck such a chord in those early days?
“I was really obsessed with it,” Tiafoe – now often known as ‘Big Foe’ – recalled. “And I kind of got the hang of it quite quick.”
The “one-on-one competition” element – “it’s a ‘best man wins’ kind of vibe” – was a big part of the appeal.
I was just a young kid shooting for the stars...
“I loved breaking down the game. It kind of built me as the man I am today, character wise, discipline wise, making sacrifices to the game. I think it’s a sport that helps you grow as an individual quite quickly, if you want to be great especially, and that goes across the board of what life looks like. If you want to get to a certain place in life, you have to have a certain amount of discipline, dedication, sacrifice, to do anything at a high level.”
Once he started winning things, it also became an “outlet to take care of my family”, he added. “To put me in a different situation for my family, to be able to experience these things. Seeing the Williams sisters [fellow US tennis stars Venus and Serena] was a big help for me to realise this is actually a possibility, rather than a hobby. I was just a young kid shooting for the stars.”
Last year, he returned to the JTCC – the centre that shaped so much of his own childhood – to launch The Frances Tiafoe Fund in partnership with USTA Foundation, which aims to help change the lives of children from underserved backgrounds through tennis.
And he is “truly happy” to be continuing his ambassador role for Barclays, the biggest-ever donor to the Wimbledon Foundation, the championships’ official charity – their Set for Success programme, delivered by the Youth Sport Trust, is all about developing life and leadership skills. Barclays has also partnered with the Lawn Tennis Association (LTA) on a grassroots project offering free park tennis sessions across the country (Barclays Free Park Tennis).
“It’s about giving back and paying things forward,” said Tiafoe.
Now about to enter his seventh Wimbledon, that little boy who became “obsessed” with tennis while hanging around his dad’s place of work has come a long way.
What was it like for his parents seeing their son getting swept up in tournament success?
“Things were just going so quick,” said Tiafoe, recalling going from local competitions, to winning national and then international tournaments. “[And then] you’ve got people telling my parents, ‘This dude can be pro’, at age 14, 15 – and they’re like, ‘Oh hell no, he’s going to college!’”
Their advice was not to put all his “eggs in one basket”, and to focus on getting a college scholarship.
“You know – classic parent attitude! It was tough, because as you a parent, you never know if you’re really making the right choice. You want to do as best you can for the kid, and you’ve got the worries of things not going right, and you don’t want to be to blame for that,” Tiafoe continued.
“But I think you can’t do anything in life without taking a little risk. And you want to do that as an educated risk – don’t be an idiot! But if things are going the right way, and you gave it everything, can we ever regret that?”
Francis Tiafo is a Tennis Ambassador for Barclays, the Official Banking Partner of Wimbledon and the largest partner donor of the Wimbledon Foundation.