Frances Tiafoe beats Andrey Rublev in a US Open ‘Cinderella’ story
American Frances Tiafoe is quickly rising his fan base because the native participant secured his spot within the semif-finals of the US Open for the primary time after defeating Russian Andrey Rublev in a three-setter on Wednesday, September 7.
Tiafoe, who famously ended Rafael Nadal’s marketing campaign within the fourth spherical at Arthur Ashe Stadium, turned the primary American male participant to make it to the US Open last-four since Andy Roddick in 2006.
The 24-year-old Tiafoe displayed his all-round brilliance to take down ninth seed Andrey Rublev 7-6(3), 7-6(0), 6-4 .
“Seeing people like screaming your name, just loving what you’re doing. That’s awesome,” Tiafoe stated. “You know, everyone loves a Cinderella story. Just trying to make one.”
Tiafoe comes from a humble background as his father labored as an on-site caretaker on the Junior Tennis Champions Center in College Park and his mom labored nights as a nurse after the household fled the civil conflict in Sierra Leone.
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When requested what message his story despatched, Tiafoe merely stated: “Anybody can do it. If you are truly, truly passionate about something, I think anything can happen.”
Tiafoe has carried the load of expectations all through his taking part in profession, along with his solely ATP victory coming in Delray in early 2018. He went onto stun the Australian Open discipline after reaching the quarter-final almost a 12 months later.
“When I came on the scene, flying up the rankings, everything was kind of good. I got a bit complacent, 2019. Took me a long time kind of just get myself together. I stopped trying to be the guy. Like when things were going to happen, it was going to happen. I was fine with it. I was comfortable with myself. Now, it’s all come into fruition,” Tiafoe stated.
Tiafoe, who suffered a sequence of early defeats in Grand Slams, added coach Wayne Ferreira to his teaching staff in 2020 and went onto attain the fourth spherical on the US Open for the primary time throughout that 12 months. Ferreira helped Tiafoe in managing his weight loss program and method whereas working towards.
“Some players have difficulties being really, really talented and just playing the game without really understanding what it is you need to do,” stated Ferreira. “It’s taken time for us to get gradually to where we are today.”
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