Roger Federer survives first round scare against 70th-ranked Frances Tiafoe

[BlueMTexpat]

http://edition.cnn.com/2017/08/29/tennis/us-open-first-round-federer-tiafoe/index.html

As a fan of watching tennis (I am no player myself, but my husband is and he has educated me on the finer points) and a fan of the great Roger Federer (as a resident of Switzerland, it's almost an obligation to be, LOL), I watched last evening's thrilling first round US Open tennis match and was very impressed with the playing and general demeanor of Frances Tiafoe. While Roger literally hung on by a thread to win, Tiafoe looks to be one of the most impressive American men's tennis players right now and should have a brilliant career ahead of him if he keeps on the way he has begun.

I am posting this CNN article because it is one with more details about the young man himself. IMO, they make him even more impressive.

Reportedly a quiet, thoughtful teen, Tiafoe credits much of his development to his father, Constant Tiafoe, an immigrant from Sierra Leone.
The elder Tiafoe helped build, and later became the custodian of, the Junior Tennis Champions Center in College Park, Maryland, where Frances has trained since he was a child.
While working around the clock, his father was forced to move into a vacant storage room at the tennis center, where his two boys would stay with him, sleeping on a massage table, while their mother worked night shifts as a nurse.
...
At just 15 years old, Tiafoe won the prestigious Orange Bowl, becoming the youngest boys' singles champion in the tournament's history -- a remarkable feat considering the list of previous champions, which includes Roger Federer, Andy Roddick, Ivan Lendl, Jim Courier, John McEnroe and Bjorn Borg.
While many junior prodigies have come and gone, Tiafoe's unique background and work ethic set him apart from the rest. He said of his parents, "with them trying so hard, I felt like I didn't want to let them down. I felt like I didn't want to let the opportunities go for granted."

He's someone I'll be paying attention to from now on and I wish him ALL success!

[CincyDem]

1. This kid is the real thing.

I saw him here against Isner a couple weeks ago. He lost in two but still, every single game was a battle. Isner was serving 130mph+ and I'm sure he got some aces but they were few and far between. This kid was on him the whole match.

We're going to be seeing his name for a while. And that's a good thing.

[BlueMTexpat]

7. I didn't see his Cincy

matches. But before he lost to Isner, he won against Alexander Zverev - who is the one many experts expect to be the first of the younger generation to win a Major.

http://www.tennis.com/pro-game/2017/08/alexander-zverev-frances-tiafoe-cincinnati-masters-atp-tennis/68572/

And Zverev had just beaten Federer - albeit a Federer plagued with back issues - to win the title in Montreal!

So Tiafoe really is one to watch.

[CincyDem]

9. You're right, that was a better match.

We had almost all the top 10 drop out of this years tournament for health reasons. I think it was just Nadal and Dimitrov by the time the matches really got going. That gave us a chance to see a lot of the next gen players.

Same was true on the women's side with Serena sitting out. Looking forward to seeing more Sloane Stephens...if she can keep her head in the game.

[BlueMTexpat]

10. Both Sloane Stephens and

Madison Keys are looking very good.

And yes, much as I love Roger, it is great fun to see the NextGen players play good matches and, as in Tiafoe's case, gaine some major confidence in their games.

Btw, Serena is featured in a commercial that they're running on ESPN where she looks very glamorous - playing ping pong!

[northoftheborder]

2. Thanks for reminding me US OPEN has started.....

sorry I missed Federer ----- HUGE FAN here

[BlueMTexpat]

5. What I really liked was how Roger spoke

to Tiafoe afterwards:

Basking in the surrounds of a closed-roof home-crowd atmosphere on Arthur Ashe Stadium, Frances Tiafoe admits a five-set defeat to Roger Federer only serves as motivation. The #NextGenATP American fell 4-6, 6-2, 6-1, 1-6, 6-4 to the No. 3 seed but the words of encouragement he received at net reassured him he was on the right track.
“Great year so. You're only getting better and better. Keep going, you're going to have one hell of a future,” Tiafoe said the Swiss great told him. With rain washing out most of the day’s play, a closed roof only amplified the electric New York City atmosphere on Tuesday night. Tiafoe was feeding off the home support.
“The crowd was getting behind me pretty good,” Tiafoe said. “I like to get the crowd pretty into it, especially in the fourth, when I was playing pretty much [playing] lights out.
“I was getting pretty hyped. They were liking that. I'm pretty sure they would have liked me to have sneaked that one out. But, yeah, the guy's just too good.”

https://www.atpworldtour.com/en/news/tiafoe-usopen-2017-tuesday

[nycbos]

3. I watched the match. He has a lot of talent to be sure.

Something he can tell his grandkids. "I played the greatest player ever in the first round of the US Open and I took him to five sets"


Not to diminish his achievement but I don't think ANY first round player takes Roger Federer to five sets if he is 100%. I heard he had some back issues.

[BlueMTexpat]

4. True - Roger pulled out of

Cincy because of back issues and he himself said afterwards that he was somewhat tentative at the beginning of last night's match because of that.

But he also said that he was encouraged that they didn't actually present him with a problem in the match and that he felt fine. We'll see how he feels today. Hope that he can stay the course!

But it wasn't only his back. His serves - apart from his aces that really saved him at some points - weren't working as usual; he had tons of backhand errors (not usual); and his timing was off. Some of the latter two especially were caused by Tiafoe's excellent playing.

[dhill926]

6. great story....and a great talent...

he will be fun to watch in the coming years...

[BlueMTexpat]

8. +1! eom