It’s sunny in the RCTB clubhouse and Frances Tiafoe (25) shakes my hand, pulls her hood up over her head and takes a seat.
The guy is huge, he looks like a light heavyweight, and his hand wraps around mine, I feel like the grip of a racket, if it’s possible to feel that way.
“Come on,” he says.
He asks me to start the chat now, since we’re late: the interview should have taken place two hours before, but Tiafoe’s suitcase was lost in Paris and arrived a little while ago.
“When they knocked on my door to bring it to me, they caught me sleeping,” he says.
It’s a good awakening.
-I think so.
(…)
It was 1996 when Constant Tiafoe left Sierra Leone to settle in Maryland, near Washington DC. In the move, the man had taken his wife, Alphina, and her twin children: Franklin and Frances were two years old then.
The American dream had its servitudes. For months, the children and the father would live together in a 13-square-meter little room while Alphina, a nursing assistant, settled in the apartment of some relatives, kilometers away.
Constant worked with his hands: he used them to build the College Park tennis complex.
And he would do it so much and so well that the center’s board of directors ended up granting him the position of head of maintenance for the club.
So while Constant was spending hours at the Junior Tennis Champions Center, the twins were running around with a racket and a ball.
–Have you seen King Richard, the story of the Williams? I ask Frances Tiafoe.
I was at the premiere! My girlfriend (Ayan Bloomfield is a WTA-level tennis player) played Venus Williams in the movie.
–¿…?
–Ayan told me: ‘You have to come to the premiere’. How to fail him?
–And do you see parallels between the Williamses and you?
-Of course. I grew up in conditions similar to those of that family. His story is well known now. I know what it means as a culture. Many people have seen that film, many people who have no interest in this sport but who, through it, have learned to grow despite the difficulties.
Do you think the Williams story has helped you in any way? I’m talking about perspective, about interracial relationships…
–Look: I would not have thought of being a super tennis professional if they had not existed. I mean: I was eight or nine years old and I would see them winning Grand Slams and I would say: ‘Why not?’ And so, I thought that I could be someone great in tennis. Because they had changed the game, their world. And last year I had the opportunity to taste some of that (he played in the semifinal of the US Open; he lost it to Carlos Alcaraz) and then I saw that yes, it really could be.
And what happened to Franklin?
Franklin, like many other kids my age, wasn’t as focused on tennis as I was. And if I played, it was not because anyone inspired me, but because I was passionate about doing it. Franklin also played very well, but tennis did not take up 24 hours.
“And what does Franklin do now?”
He’s a coach in Florida. He is one of my inspirations in tennis, he has helped me get to where I am, his faith in me was infinite.
-And his parents? What do they do?
-Anything.
-Anything?
–My mother is a nerve and she still looks for things to do, especially at home: she meets friends, she comes and goes. My father is happy, he is living the dream that he had since he was little. He does not do anything.
You helped them grow.
–Sure, but they helped me when I was little. They accepted the idea that I wanted to be what I wanted to be. And that’s why I said to myself: ‘When I’m older, I’ll be the one to take care of them’. And I hope to continue to do so, hopefully for another ten years.
(Today, Tiafoe is the 11th ATP racket, the fifth seed in Barcelona; and as a tennis player, he has amassed eight million euros, advertising revenue aside).
–There is the story of Mardy Fish. He came after Connors, McEnroe, Courier, Agassi, Sampras, Roddick…: American tennis fell on his back and couldn’t take the pressure. You and Fritz are the best Americans today. Do you also feel the pressure, like Mardy Fish?
–In 2019, he was 21 years old, he was Top 20, everyone said he was the future. My game was there, but I wasn’t able to take that pressure. And I suffered with it. I didn’t have older colleagues who told me: ‘It’s okay, don’t expect more than you can give’. Yes, it was hard. Now I feel the pressure, but I think that I have everything I need. And that, win or lose, at the end of the day my friends are waiting for me. I know who I am and I am comfortable with myself. I understand how the sport goes.
