At the recent U.S. Open game, tennis phenom Francis Tiafoe shockingly defeated 22-time grand slam champion, Rafael Nadal. Here are three interesting facts about the rising star.
According to CNN, Francis’ latest win isn’t the first time he faced Rafael in a Grand Slam tournament. He initially lost to the reigning champ after reaching his first quarterfinal at the Australian Open in 2019. He reportedly broke into the world’s top 100 and began rising at the Grand Slam Tournament after turning pro in 2015. However, the 24-year-old made a stunning victory after years of persistence.
“Honestly, when I first came on the scene, I wasn’t ready for it mentally and mature enough. I’ve been able to develop, and I have a great team around me,” he said after his latest game in Flushing, Queens, on Sept. 5. “I’m happy I won in front of my mom, my dad, my girlfriend and my team and to have them see what I did.”
In 2013, Francis became the youngest boy’s singles champion in the prestigious Orange Bowl junior tournament. He won the match, which took place in Plantation, Florida, that year, at the tender age of 15. Two years later, he was the youngest American in the main draw of the French Open since 1999 and smoked his competition while on the ATP Challengers team. The sports phenom reportedly made nine finals and won four titles at that game.
Francis, originally from Hyattsville, Maryland, grew up in the DMV, where he admired 2009 U.S. Open Champion Martín del Potro. His parents–Alphina Kamara and Constant Tiafoe–reportedly escaped civil war in Sierra Leone during the 1990s and migrated to the U.S., where he was exposed to tennis. Constant worked as a day laborer constructing the Junior Tennis Champions Center in 1999.
Francis has become the youngest American man to reach the U.S. quarterfinals since 2006.
