{"id":7735,"date":"2022-09-11T19:00:19","date_gmt":"2022-09-11T23:00:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/inspirationreport\/?p=7735"},"modified":"2022-09-11T19:00:19","modified_gmt":"2022-09-11T23:00:19","slug":"the-inspirational-story-of-frances-tiafoe-from-sleeping-in-a-tennis-center-to-playing-the-u-s-open","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/inspirationreport\/2022\/09\/the-inspirational-story-of-frances-tiafoe-from-sleeping-in-a-tennis-center-to-playing-the-u-s-open.html","title":{"rendered":"The Inspirational Story of Frances Tiafoe: From Sleeping in a Tennis Center to Playing the U.S. Open"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>After beating 22-time grand slam champion Rafael Nadal to reach the\u00a0U.S. Open quarterfinal\u00a0last Monday,\u00a0Frances Tiafoe\u00a0threw his racket on the floor and covered his face in bewilderment.<\/p>\n<p>It felt like a seminal moment in the 24-year-old American\u2019s career, a culmination of hard work and raw talent which has long been heralded as the potential future of men\u2019s tennis in the country.<\/p>\n<p>Now, with Tiafoe reaching the semifinals by beating Andrey Rublev in straight sets last Wednesday 7-6 7-6 6-4, he has recorded the best grand slam result of his career, the achievement made all the more impressive given his humble beginnings.<\/p>\n<p>The crowd at Arthur Ashe Stadium delighted in the play of Tiafoe, the first Black American man to reach a U.S. Open semifinal since Ashe in 1972. And in a match where he didn\u2019t lose a service game to the world No. 11, he couldn\u2019t let them down.<\/p>\n<p>In an on-court interview after the match, Tiafoe said, \u201cI feel so at home at courts like this. This court is unbelievable. You guys get so far behind me; you know I want to play and want to give it my best. I always find a way somehow on this court. I always try to play great tennis, and I have been.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><iframe title=\"YouTube video player\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/SjtB2WZIqyE\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>Tiafoe\u2019s route into tennis has been in no way traditional. His\u00a0parents met in the U.S. after leaving Sierra Leone\u00a0and had twins together, Franklin and Frances. Their father, Constant Tiafoe, started working at the Junior Tennis Champions Center in Washington, D.C., back in 1999 and eventually moved into one of its vacant storage rooms while working around the clock.<\/p>\n<p>His two boys sometimes stayed with him, sleeping on a massage table, while their mother worked night shifts as a nurse. The unusual gateway into the sport allowed Tiafoe to start developing his skills, and, after beginning to train at the facility, he didn\u2019t look back.<\/p>\n<p>In 2015, he told CNN Sport, \u201cObviously, I wasn\u2019t the wealthy kid or wasn\u2019t having all the new stuff or whatever. But I was just living life. I could play tennis for free, the sport I loved,\u201d adding that he wouldn\u2019t change his upbringing for the world.<\/p>\n<p>His coach, Wayne Ferreira, said Tiafoe\u2019s story is movie material, but he must first win the U.S. Open or another grand slam event. He said, \u201cYou only get movies if you do well. But his story is very unique, and it\u2019s a great story. And he\u2019s very humbled. He\u2019s a very, very, very nice individual: very great heart and kind. You\u2019ve got to love him. He\u2019s truly special.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Make no mistake, though. This is no overnight success story. It\u2019s a product of thousands of hours of work and a mentality that won\u2019t take no for an answer. However, while the weight of a nation rests on his shoulders, Tiafoe has always just focused on making his parents proud. He says he didn\u2019t want to let them down or take his opportunities for granted.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>After beating 22-time grand slam champion Rafael Nadal to reach the\u00a0U.S. Open quarterfinal\u00a0last Monday,\u00a0Frances Tiafoe\u00a0threw his racket on the floor and covered his face in bewilderment. It felt like a seminal moment in the 24-year-old American\u2019s career, a culmination of hard work and raw talent which has long been heralded as the potential future of&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":657,"featured_media":7741,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fbia_status":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[4,12,1007],"tags":[1762,694,1759],"class_list":["post-7735","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-inspiring-messages","category-inspiring-people","category-sports","tag-frances-tiafoe","tag-inspirational","tag-u-s-open"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v23.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>The Inspirational Story of Frances Tiafoe: From Sleeping in a Tennis Center to Playing the U.S. Open<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"No other story should inspire people to live out their dreams than Frances Tiafoe&#039;s story. 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