Frances Tiafoe: From The Janitor's Closet To The US Open Quarterfinal

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Hey Friends,

Frances Tiafoe shocked the sports world yesterday, beating 22-time Grand Slam Champion Rafael Nadal to reach the quarterfinals at the US Open.

It is the first time Rafael Nadal has lost a Grand Slam match this year — he was previously 22-0 — and at just 24 years old, Frances Tiafoe is now the last remaining American male in contention at the US Open — a tournament that hasn’t been won by an American man in nearly 20 years (Andy Roddick last won in 2003).

"It's something to tell the kids, the grandkids, Yeah, I beat Rafa. Hopefully I never play him again, and I end with a win,” Tiafoe said after the match with a smile.

But somehow, this isn’t even the most interesting part. Why? Because Frances Tiafoe has one of the most incredible stories in sports. Let me explain.

(Photo: Frances Tiafoe via US Open/Twitter)

Frances Tiafoe and his twin brother Franklin were born in Hyattsville, Maryland, a small suburb outside Washington, D.C.

But his parents faced a far more complicated life growing up.

His father, Constant, left the Western-African country of Sierra Leone after a civil war broke out, and he immigrated to the United States in 1993. He was joined by Frances’ mother, Alphina, a few years later in 1996, and the two settled down in Maryland.

Still, with no education, no money, no family nearby, and no resources, the Tiafoe family struggled to make ends meet. Alphina found work as a nurse during the week, often pulling multiple shifts and spending the night at the hospital, while Constant became a day laborer on a construction crew building a nearby sports facility.

The facility they were building is the Junior Tennis Champions Center, and more than two decades later, it is still one of the premiere tennis facilities in the United States.

But here’s the interesting part: Constant was reportedly one of the crew’s best workers, so when facilities construction was complete, he was hired as the full-time, on-site custodian and given a spare office to live in at the tennis center.

Here’s a quick recap of the situation, according to The Washington Post:

“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.

It was while working these round-the-clock shifts that he moved into a vacant 10-by-14-foot room at the tennis complex. He slept and took his showers there, ordered in food and stored his clothes all over the complex — on hangers, in a suitcase, in a shed outside. And during stretches when the mother of his sons, Alphina Kamara, worked night shifts as a licensed practical nurse, the boys stayed with him.

The twins’ tennis education started so long ago that neither has a first memory of holding a racket or taking a lesson. As toddlers they were pushed around in their stroller by club members who doted on them while their father worked. A gregarious man with a big smile and long dreadlocks, Tiafoe Sr. became an unofficial ambassador of the Junior Tennis Champions Center, greeting visitors, detailing members’ cars, even taking up the game himself as a former high school sprinter who missed the thrill of competing. And when his boys were 5, he got them enrolled, free of charge, in the clinic for the littlest children.”

This is where Frances developed his love for the game, and because of his dad’s work at the facility, he was allowed to train with elite coaches for free.

(Photo: The Junior Tennis Champions Center via JTCC)

The rest, as they say, is history. Frances started training at the Junior Tennis Champions Center when he was just five years old. And by the age of eight, youth coach Misha Kouznetsov agreed to coach him full-time after witnessing his talent and work ethic — Frances was playing morning, noon, and night.

So the two began traveling to youth tennis tournaments across the country, with Kouznetsov frequently paying tournament entry fees. Tiafoe rose the ranks, winning prestigious junior tournaments like Les Petits AS in France and the Orange Bowl in Florida, and he eventually made his professional debut at just sixteen years old.

(Photo: The Tiafoe family via Tennis Tonic)

Frances Tiafoe has only won one title since turning professional in 2015. Still, he has earned more than $6 million in prize money and is currently playing some of the best tennis of his life — he is ranked as the 26th best men’s player in the world and is the second highest-ranked American men’s player (Taylor Fritz is ranked 12th).

But ultimately, I love this story for one simple reason: The Tiafoe family was dealt a difficult hand, and tennis is one of the most expensive youth sports on the planet. But rather than sit back and complain, they made the best of a difficult situation, turning a custodian career into an estimated $400,000-plus of free tennis training, and now, a multi-million-dollar tennis career to go along with it. Now that’s incredible.

I hope everyone has a great day. We’ll talk tomorrow.

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