Prior to this week’s Rakuten Japan Open Tennis Championships, Frances Tiafoe was asked about his goals for the rest of the 2022 season.
“Maybe more titles. I’ve not won a title in a long time,” responded the American, whose sole ATP Tour crown came in Delray Beach in 2018. “I’ve been close, but if I’ve won a title by the end of the year, if I can sneak one…”
On Saturday, a hard-fought semi-final victory against Soonwoo Kwon in Tokyo moved Tiafoe within one win of fulfilling that goal, perhaps sooner than he imagined. Friend and countryman Taylor Fritz awaits in Sunday’s final, but Tiafoe will be feeling confident after recently notching what he sees as career-defining wins at the US Open (where he beat Rafael Nadal en route to the semi-finals) and the Laver Cup (where he defeated Stefanos Tsitsipas to clinch the trophy for Team World).
“I think those wins are massive,” Tiafoe recently told ATPTour.com. “I’m playing some of the best tennis of my career so far right now, for sure, and I think I needed it. I’ve been on the brink for a while now, steadily getting my ranking back up and playing much better, so it feels nice for the rewards to be paying off now, but yeah, it comes with the territory and I’m ready for it.”
Coming into the US Open in late August, Tiafoe could look back on a solid yet inconsistent first eight months of his 2022 season, with a final in Estoril and a fourth-round appearance at Wimbledon among the highlights. He found a new level at Flushing Meadows, however, downing Nadal and Andrey Rublev to reach his maiden Grand Slam semi-final where eventual champion Carlos Alcaraz needed five sets to halt the American’s charge.
Tiafoe’s run was one of the stories of the fortnight in New York and with it came some unexpected attention. Following the Nadal win, Tiafoe was tweeted by LeBron James (“CONGRATS Young King!!!” wrote the NBA legend) while Michelle Obama was waiting to greet him shortly after the Alcaraz match. Tiafoe could hardly avoid noticing the rise in his profile in his homeland, but the 24-year-old found it surprisingly easy to stay focused on his tennis.
“Definitely I was in new territory during that tournament, but I was just so in the moment,” said Tiafoe. “Obviously, everything happened so fast, a lot of different distractions, I was just being me. I was just enjoying my tennis out there. I was just having fun, I didn’t really get too lost in that; I…
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