Tiafo, Francis

Francis was born on January 20, 1998, along with his twin brother Franklin in Maryland, USA, in the family of Francis Sr. (father) and Alfina Tiafo (née Camara), immigrants from Sierra Leone. His father emigrated to the United States in 1993, while his mother moved later in 1996 to avoid a civil war in their home country. In 1999, his father began working as a full-time worker in the construction team that built the Tennis Champions Center (JTCC) in College Park, Maryland. When the facility was completed, he was hired as an employee at this Center. Francis and Franklin took advantage of a unique life situation to start playing tennis regularly from the age of 4.

When Francis and his brother were 5 years old, their father managed to agree to study at the JTCC, bypassing the usual selection. At the age of 8, Misha Kuznetsov began to train Francis in the center, showing great interest in him as a player, seeing him as a work ethic and attraction to sports. Kuznetsov also helped with a sponsor for Tiafo. He continued to coach Francis for nine years until Tiafo moved to the Florida National Training Center to train with more experienced trainers.

Brother Franklin played tennis at Dematha Catholic High School and currently plays college tennis at the University of Salisbury in Maryland.

Play style

Like many of his famous American tennis contemporaries, such as Jack Sook and Sam Querrey , Tiafo plays an aggressive offensive game that relies on a powerful serve and a powerful freehand kick. His height is 188 cm. Allows him to feed at a speed of 170-180 km / h. After meeting him at the US Open Tennis Championships in 2016, John Isner noted that the first serve of Tiafo is one of the best in the world, it can only be inferior to Novak Djokovic. The most unique hit for him is his hit on the right, which is very difficult to receive and is controlled by an unusual hand movement. His left punch is also solid, especially when receiving from the pitch.

Tiafo made his debut in the ATP main draw at the age of 16 after receiving a wild card for a home tournament in Washington. He lost to Eugene Donskoy in his first match. At the 2014 US Open, in the doubles tournament, Tiafo got a wild card in the main draw of the tournament and played with Michael Mmo. Two teenagers won their first career victory at the ATP level in the first round, defeating veterans Viktor Estrella Burgos and Teymuraz Gabashvili. In March 2015, Tiafo acquired his first professional title by winning futures at the ITF in Bakersfield.

In Winston-Salem in August 2015, Tiafo entered the main draw from qualification and won the first match of the ATP tour level, beating James Duckworth in the tie-break of the third set. Then Tiafo made his debut at the US Open. In the first round, he lost to Viktor Troitsky from Serbia, the 22nd seeded in the tournament. After the US Open, Tiafo continued his success at the Challenger tournaments and reached the second final in Knoxville, losing to Dan Evans. Driven by his success at the level of Challenger tournaments, Tiafo rose to the end of the year in the ranking by 176 positions.

Tiafo was introduced to the Wild Card at the 2016 US Open, where he faced American veteran John Isner in the first round and won the first two sets, but ultimately lost the match in the fifth set in a tie-break.

At the Australian Open 2017, Francis started the year, reaching the main draw of the tournament through qualifications for the first time, and then won in the first round of Mikhail Kukushkin from Kazakhstan.

The beginning of 2017 for the American tennis player was very impressive, he was able to rise in the ranking to 65 places in the world.

Tiafo gained great fame after playing five sets with Roger Federer in his first match at the Arthur Ashe Stadium at the 2017 US Open Tennis Championship.

2018 Season

At a tournament in Delray Beach , at the end of February, Francis managed to win his first title at ATP tournaments. In the final, he outplayed the German tennis player Pyotr Goevchik . During the tournament, he knocked out Australian Matthew Ebden , Argentinean Juan Martin Del Potro , the Korean talent of Chon Hyun and Canadian Denis Shapovalov from the fight for the title.

In March, the tournament in Miami reached the 1/8 finals, where he lost to Kevin Anderson.

In May, he reached the final of the tournament in Estoril (Portugal), in which he lost to the tournament's owner, Juan Souza .

At Wimbledon 2018 in the third round, he lost to Russian Karen Khachanov.

At the US Open in the second round, he was knocked out of the tournament by Alex De Minaur .

2019 Season

Francis made a breakthrough at the Australian Open , reaching the quarterfinals of the tournament, in which he lost to the second racket of the world to Rafael Nadal in three sets. During the competition on the courts of Melbourne, Tiafo knocked out of the fight Kevin Anderson , Andreas Seppi , Grigor Dimitrov . After that, there were several defeats in the first rounds at various tournaments and only in March at the tournament in Miami (USA) did he reach the quarter finals, but lost to Canadian Denis Shapovalov.

• Profile on ATP website

• Profile on ITF website