At the 2022 U.S. Open, over “the craziest two weeks” of his life, Frances Tiafoe may need peaked. Up to that time, the then-24-year-old from Maryland had flashed brazen artistic presents on courtroom however struggled with each point-to-point and week-to-week consistency. At that Open, as he reeled off the largest win (after which near-win) of his profession, Tiafoe shook up all expectations for the sort of participant he would possibly turn into.
In the fourth spherical, Tiafoe, who had by no means crushed a participant of that caliber earlier than, took out Rafael Nadal—the Spaniard’s one loss in a significant that 12 months, and an finish to his push for the No. 1 rating. In his subsequent match, he swept apart Andrey Rublev, a top-10 staple and constant main quarterfinalist. In his first main semifinal—territory I by no means fairly anticipated to seek out him in—Tiafoe dragged eventual champion Carlos Alcaraz to an intoxicating five-setter, with Michelle Obama watching. He misplaced that match, however received loads of admirers; he’d conclusively raised his tennis to match his charisma ranges. Casual observers started to be taught his story: The son of a Sierra Leonean immigrant who labored at a custodian at a tennis middle, Tiafoe lived on the premises and constructed up his idiosyncratic method by hitting towards partitions after hours.
As far as steering, his partnership with coach Wayne Ferreira was trying extremely fruitful—they’d sharpened his serve right into a weapon and tightened up his level building. In 2023 Tiafoe grew to become a top-10 participant and the sort of title who might lure Joakim Noah and Queen Latifah out to Court 7 at Roland-Garros, or Kevin Durant and Pusha T out to the standard Citi Open in D.C. While Tiafoe has by no means been the best ranked of his countrymen—Taylor Fritz nonetheless led him, by a hair—he was briefly a lodestar for the boys’s recreation in America.
I say “briefly” as a result of it’s inconceivable to coast on previous ends in tennis. Rankings factors have to be defended consistently; new and youthful foes are all the time pouring into the sport. Not-so-distant runs of brilliance really feel like relics. Just a few weeks into the 2024 season, it is already exhausting to keep in mind that the trail for Tiafoe as soon as regarded fairly that luminous. The final 5 months do not inform a narrative of a participant who might credibly tango with Carlos Alcaraz within the late rounds of a significant. Tiafoe fell right into a rut after the 2023 U.S. Open and has received simply seven of 17 matches since then. In the offseason he ended his three-year run with Ferreira. “Sheesh, we had a ton of success. But sadly we’ve decided to part ways. Thanks for getting me to the player I am today,” Tiafoe wrote on Instagram. He’s since teamed up with Diego Moyano, a coach he used to work with in his junior days. And taking within the broader image, the 26-year-old is receding again into the broader wave of American tennis as his compatriots elevate their very own video games.
In the ATP rankings launched Monday, Tiafoe is No. 15, tellingly sandwiched between fellow Americans Ben Shelton and Tommy Paul, each of whom have gotten the higher of him recently. Shelton, who was then winding down his first-ever full season as professional, beat Tiafoe in an all-black-American U.S. Open quarterfinal final fall. It was a stifling, sweaty affair and Tiafoe got here up flat in the kind of match the place he’d sometimes thrived: on dwelling soil, loads of assist. Even although Tiafoe has extra extra shimmer and ingenuity to his recreation, Shelton’s lefty serve—which he can ship with devilish spin or practically 150-mph tempo as he sees match—may be the only most precious tennis talent that these two gamers have between them. Add in some outlier dimension and athleticism, and there is the inspiration for a harmful participant who might effectively eclipse Tiafoe and the opposite Americans within the coming years. While Shelton has had his personal uneven outcomes outdoors of precocity on the hard-court majors, it is price noting that he was considered one of two gamers to beat Jannik Sinner throughout his ongoing 32-2 rampage. (The different one was Novak Djokovic.) Shelton’s recreation is already large enough to trouble the world’s greatest on exhausting courts, and he is solely a 21-year-old in season two.
Elsewhere, a direct up to date like Tommy Paul is threatening to surpass Tiafoe at his personal recreation. Paul seems to have left behind his previous buffoonery—like, say, exhibiting up drunk to his 2017 U.S. Open doubles match—and has refined his recreation of sentimental arms, quick ft, and all-court consolation. That roughly describes Tiafoe’s strengths as effectively—Paul’s simply executing at a better stage in the meanwhile. He had a pair of fascinating matches towards Carlos Alcaraz final summer time, profitable one, and whereas he continues to fall brief towards the easiest, he seems like a top-20 staple for the foreseeable future. Paul comfortably scooted previous Tiafoe, 6-2, 6-4, of their semifinal matchup in Delray over the weekend; it was Paul’s seventh straight win, after having received a title the week earlier than in Dallas, beating Shelton en route. (The intra-U.S. rivalries are heating up; Paul additionally misplaced to Taylor Fritz within the Delray last, because the top-ranked American made completely clear the place he stands within the hierarchy. What Fritz lacks in high-end spicy outcomes, he makes up for by beating all the fellows he ought to beat.)
Tiafoe has been shedding to all these guys. He additionally misplaced handily to a lesser-ranked American, world No. 67 Marcus Giron, a 30-year-old who’s on a pleasant trajectory and simply cracked the highest 50 however should not be inflicting a major Tiafoe a lot woe. There have been a handful of different eyebrow-raising losses on this boring patch. It’s exhausting to determine precisely what’s gone incorrect with the cheeky showman, who’s been taking part in tennis shorn of his common pleasure over these previous couple of months. One space of technical weak point is obvious sufficient: During this 7-10 stoop, Tiafoe has had 9 matches the place he received lower than half of the factors behind his second serve. He’s lengthy had a troubling tendency to roll these serves in with out a lot goal; Shelton specifically made him pay for that in that deflating U.S. Open quarterfinal. Tiafoe just isn’t distinctive on return, and his surge in 2022 and 2023 was predicated on the advances he’d made on his personal serve, which he modified from a point-starter into a real weapon. If he surrenders that edge, he may not have a safe foothold within the prime 20 anymore.
Tiafoe’s received a lot of rating factors to guard within the coming weeks, most notably the hefty chunk of 360 factors he received by making the semifinal at Indian Wells. I consider tennis is vastly extra entertaining when Tiafoe is laughing and sprinting and chopping up the opposition in type. Right now he is received loads of work to do to retain his hard-won relevance.
