Frances Tiafoe opens up about ‘sleeping on a massage table’ as he discusses humble tennis upbringing
American tennis star Frances Tiafoe has opened up about his humble tennis background as he discussed “sleeping on a massage table” at the tennis club his dad used to work at.
One of the most likeable and popular figures in the game, Tiafoe, the winner of three ATP titles and a former US Open semi-finalist, started playing tennis at the age of four alongside his twin brother Franklin.
Tiafoe’s father, who left Sierra Leone to move to America in 1993, had worked as a day labourer at the Junior Tennis Champions Center in Maryland and was eventually hired as the onsite custodian for the site once construction was complete.
That allowed Tiafoe and his brother to spend more time at the club, and speaking on Good Trouble with Nick Kyrgios, the former world No 10 shared his early experiences entering the tennis world.
He said: “I literally get picked up from school when I was working and me, my brother would tap the ball against the wall, kind of joke around. We’d see the coaches tell the players some stuff. We go to empty court, try to mimic it, like whiffing serves and whatever, but we’re trying to do it.
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“And then my mum calls us, like, ‘Hey I’m working overnight. You’re gonna have to stay at the tennis centre.’ So, we’re picking up trash, we’re lining the clay courts, we’re doing all this.
“And I always go to my dad and I’m like, ‘this is crazy.’ He said: ‘look, this is going to pay off one day.’
“‘It’s going to pay off one day.’ And I was like, you know what? I’m going to be the guy who’s going to change that. And so, then that appreciation came. You know, anything that came my way I’m very appreciative because I know if he didn’t do that, we’re not having this conversation today.
“I mean then I’m just sitting there, sleeping on a massage table with my dad. If my dad’s sleeping in the bed at the tennis centre with my twin brother, I’m like, ‘I’m going to win the US Open one day, I’m going to be a pro.’”
Tiafoe has previously been open about his parents often being unable to afford state-of-the-art equipment for him and his brother while training as junior players.
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And he revealed that it was his dad’s mindset that allowed him to approach difficult moments with a positive attitude.
“As a kid, you’re kind of just being a kid. But at the same time, then it’s like there’s days where, you know, [it] got tough for me and my brother.
“We’re going to practice and we’re wearing hand-me-down stuff or demo rackets, whatever we can play with. And people are laughing at us.
“Then these are the same dudes hitting you up [now], ‘Oh man, remember when?’ No, you weren’t cool to me back then bro. We weren’t cool.
“My dad would always say: ‘Don’t worry about that. It’s not about where you start. It’s about where you going.’”
