The Common and Curious Case of Frances Tiafoe
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The Common and Curious Case of Frances Tiafoe
OK, here it goes. On Aug. 20, 2020, Frances Tiafoe went into the bubble at the US Open as the No. 81 player in the world. Earlier that year in Indian Wells, prior to the tournament canceling followed by the world shutting down, I watched Frances practicing backhand volleys with the South African former world No. 6 Wayne Ferreira feeding balls out of the Wilson cardboard case on a deep practice court.
I had known Wayne in my previous life as a racquet tech, and I have a very specific memory of seeing him in 1998 come into the stringers room at the Lipton, business as usual after coming back from a first-set bagel to beat Pete Sampras in three. The stringers were sharing the fitness room with the players, and we gave Wayne a big cheer, which was met with a stoic look, a tepid thanks, and a lesson that always stayed with me: Don’t get too high, don’t get too low, keep it even. It’s business, it’s what we do, and there’s more to do. Wayne was a serious individual.
Years later I interviewed him for Best of Five: Greatest Chokes, a relatively low-lift countdown-style show I produced for Tennis Channel. We would interview the guests for the entire series all in one shot, covering greatest matches, best rivalries, yada yada yada, and when I asked him if he had ever choked, he just looked directly at me and said, “Never.”
“Never?”
“No.”
“You never got tight?”
“No. Not that I can recall.”
Wayne was serious.
That day in August 2020, I spoke to Wayne at length for my podcast, and he talked a lot about how supremely talented and remarkably charismatic Frances is, and they just needed to practice more seriously, get into a good routine, and instill some good habits, and then good things were going to happen. And they did.
Frances finished 2020 ranked No. 59.
Frances finished 2021 ranked No. 38.
In 2022, Frances was primed to make money moves, and in Miami that year it was a poorly kept secret that he was going to be leaving his longtime agents at Octagon and signing with Jill Smoller of IMG/WME, who had guided the back end of the Sampras career and made her fame representing Serena. The HBO documentary, the myriad of endorsements, pregnancy announcements on red carpets—all Jill. Frances’s progress on the court had been slow and steady, but the hype around him was palpable.
Frances entered the 2022 US Open ranked No. 24 in the world and the second–ranked American, and when he beat Rafa in the round of 16 and then defeated Rublev, Frances became the first American to reach the semis at the Open since Roddick in 2006. A week later, Frances and longtime girlfriend Ayan Broomfield were front row at New York Fashion Week. Months later he was dapping up LeBron courtside. Earned. It was cool to see. The Serena playbook was in full effect.
Frances was No. 19 in the world and primed for a big 2023. In February he played in the celebrity portion of the NBA All-Star Game, in March semi’d Indian Wells, and then won four matches in two days to take the title at the rain-soaked, weird, long-time clay-court tournament at River Oaks in Houston. That win got him to No. 11. He won on the grass at Stuttgart in electric fashion and that got him to No. 10. Awesome story, awesome kid, moving into the hard-court season primed to make a run at a title.
And that’s where the story gets a little funky.
At his home tournament in D.C., he changed racquets. Well, let me clarify—he changed paint jobs. In an effort to alleviate confusion, Yonex retired the VCore Pro (which was often confused with the VCORE) and launched the Percept, and the rollout happened in D.C. in advance of the Citi Open. I was present at the rollout and handled the Tiafoe racquet. It was just a paint job. This is de rigueur in pro tennis. The teal green paint job, matching bag, and teal Nike kit looked clean, but Frances lost in the quarters to a zoning Dan Evans and that loss appeared to throw him into a slow tailspin. He put the Percept paint job down and played the remainder of the year with first the VCore Pro paint job, then an unmarked black racquet, which was the same racquet, but Yonex was desperate to get the VCore Pro out of circulation, and the VCore Pro paint job out of his hands. He had a super-soft draw at the Open until he got to the quarters and ended up being the foil to Ben Shelton’s hang-up-the-phone coming-out party.
It was an unforced error in judgment to try to get a player to switch racquets, or in this case paint jobs, in advance of a major. You can never do that. You have to wait to switch a player in the offseason.
But what happened next surprised me. Frances split with Wayne, thanked him on Instagram, and then enlisted the services of Diego Moyano, who was a USTA High Performance Coach that had worked significantly with the group of 1997–98 birth-year blue chippers—Opelka, Paul, Fritz, and Frances.
There are no easy matches in pro tennis, and Frances was straight-setted by a very good Tomas Machac in Australia this year. I noticed he was flat, and Moyano and the box in general seemed nervous and overly excited, fist pumping and up on every point. Was odd. I immediately thought of the Ferreira lesson I’d learned in ’98.
Frances’s losses to Paul in Delray and Koepfer in Mexico were flat, confused, alarming, extremely shaky performances. I’ve heard differing reports, that Frances had been late to practices in Delray, and that Moyano has been grinding Frances on the court, trying to literally work him through this tough patch. When discussing it, one of my guys, a professional coach on tour, said, “Tough when you work with someone as a kid then try to run it back later as an adult.
A lot of times what used to work doesn’t work. The person has changed/grown up.”
Agent. Racquet. Coach. All changed inside of two years.
The good news is despite the downturn Frances comes into the Sunshine Double the 17th ranked player in the world. Every week is an opportunity to turn a season around.
These next few weeks should be interesting for Team Tiafoe.
With that said, we have a new American woman on the scene. The Florida Gator and All Name Hall of Fame inductee McCartney Kessler took Amanda Anisimova’s spot in the Puerta Vallarta draw and won the tournament. She’s 24 years old, started the year ranked No. 240, and is now No. 120 in the world. Kind of cool. Tennis is amazing.
I chatted with world No.103 Masha Timofeeva last night and will roll that interview out this weekend. Subscribe to her YouTube channel. It’s fascinating.
If you are coming to the desert, shoot me a note and let’s have some .
You Are Released.
Craig
If you have enjoyed watching me bounce around this wide world of tennis in all its glory, come to Rome with the Academy. There are just a couple spots left.
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