Francis Tiafoe
Frances Tiafoe’s maiden year on the ATP Tour have produced some encouraging results. The 17-year-old claimed his first pro title in March this year at a Futures event in Bakersfield, USA. Despite claiming his first title, Tiafoe’s biggest achievements this year has been on the Challenger tour. At the ATP Tallahassee Challenger he defeated Argentina’s Facundo Bagnis in the first round before reaching the final. Bagnis was the first top 100 player that Tiefoe has beaten in his career. In the final he lost to another Argentine, Facundo Argüello. Tiafoe also reached the final of the Knoxville Challenger last month where he lost in three sets in Great Britain’s Dan Evans.
In the Grand Slams the youngster has played in two tournaments this season. His run in Tallahassee resulted in Tiafoe winning the American wildcard for the French Open. At his first Grand Slam tournament as a pro, he lost in straight sets to Slovakia’s Martin Klizan. The American also lost in the first round of the US Open to Vikor Troicki.
The performance of the 17-year-old hasn’t gone unnoticed. It has been reported that the American has recently been contacted by Roger Federer via text message about joining his Team8 company. Team8 was founded by Federer and his agent (Tony Godsick). They specialize in representing up and coming tennis players. According to sources at Spazio Tennis and Tennis World USA, the text read the following:-
‘Hi Frances, I hope that work and training with Jose is going good, I’m Roger Federer and I was asking myself if we can speak about your management in order to give you some suggestions if you want. I have had some problems under this aspect at the beginning of my career and maybe I could help you to take the right decision. I hope to speak to you very soon, my best wishes, Roger.’
The future certainly looks bright for Tiafoe, who parents immigrated to America from Sierra Leone. He is currently ranked 179th in the world and will be hoping that he doesn’t produce any more shocking errors similar to the one he did earlier this year.
