VERO BEACH, Fla. — There are no spectators, apart from a handful of coaches, wives and on-the-prowl agents, when 16-year-old Francis Tiafoe takes the court. There is no scoreboard, nor officials to call the lines as the country’s best junior boy warms up.
In a sporting narrative as improbable as that of Venus and Serena Williams, Tiafoe, the son of immigrants from the West African nation of Sierra Leone, has emerged as the nation’s most buzzed about tennis prodigy. In many ways, this broad-shouldered, 6-foot-1-inch phenom with eight-pack abs is still a boy. Tiafoe doesn’t yet drive, has a 9 p.m. bedtime and shaved for the first time in January. But he possesses a missile of a forehand, a full complement of shots and tactical savvy beyond his years. And he brings all of that to bear in his opening match in Vero Beach, where he schools 30-year-old Oleg Dmitriev, a Russian who has competed on the pro circuit since Tiafoe was 3.
Francis, left, and Franklin Tiafoe began taking tennis lessons at 5, but it was Francis who was quickly consumed by the sport. There was a lightning-quick pace to the construction of the Junior Tennis Champions Center — the Washington region’s premier tennis training facility —when Francis Tiafoe Sr. signed on as a day laborer in 1999.
Chronically strapped for cash, Tiafoe Sr. turned it into two jobs: keeping the complex clean by day and taking care of the clay courts by night. He had never played tennis in his life. But he quickly learned to water and roll the courts and sometimes completely resurface them, hauling dozens of 75-pound bags of clay to each court.
When Kouznetsov left at around 8:15 each night, he’d spot Francis on the outdoor courts hitting serves past dusk. When he arrived at 8 a.m., he’d find him hitting balls against a wall. “He said to me when he was 6 years old: ‘I want to be great in this sport,’ ” his father remembers. “ ‘I want to be the best to ever come from this place.’ ”Francis Tiafoe literally grew up around tennis, often spending nights at a Maryland tennis center where his father worked. Could a future U.S. champion be in the making?Kouznetsov first noticed Francis at 8, struck by how intently he listened and how hard he tried.
His parents — who met in Maryland almost two decades ago and married last year — saw none of this. They have led a precarious financial existence since arriving in the United States.Alphina Tiafoe, 46, works double shifts on weekends at a Bethesda nursing home and goes to school three days a week with the goal of becoming a registered nurse. Tiafoe Sr., who left the tennis center after 11 years in an unsuccessful attempt to launch his own business, works at a Hyattsville car wash detailing cars.
He is a very Amazing player , he would become one of the best player of the Tennis Championship, 👍🏿👍🏿👍🏿
Awesome!!
Or just an American beat a Spaniard at the US Open!
Please Help me to get Justice For Wyatt. Take just a second to sign this and retweet it. The suffering ochsner health put him through by covering up what their surgeon did to him will never be okay. JusticeForWyatt
Ever since he played doubles w Serena, his play & notoriety have improved. Good for him.
lizclarketweet His first name is spelled 'Frances.'
That was a great match! Congratulations!
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