An Improbable Tennis Prodigy: Francis Tiafoe grew up at College Park’s Junior Tennis Champions Center, where his immigrant dad was the maintenance man. Now the 16-year-old is the country’s best junior boy. There are no spectators, apart from a handful of coaches, wives and on-the-prowl agents, when 16-year-old Francis Tiafoe takes the court. There is no scoreboard, nor officials to call the lines as the country’s best junior boy warms up. The Futures Circuit is the lowest rung on the ladder of professional tennis, a minor league proving ground where promising amateurs, tapped-out pros and maxed-out journeymen claw over ranking points and $10,000 purses. It is a precipitous step down from the emerald-green splendor of Wimbledon and pampered environs of champions such as Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal. Francis Tiafoe, 16, has a full complement of shots and shows tactical savvy beyond his years. “I’m like 35 in tennis years,” he says. “I’ve been on a tennis court all my life.” (Jahi Chikwendiu/The Washington Post) Then again, the $75-a-night oceanfront motel where Tiafoe and the other players are staying is a considerable step up from the spare room at College Park’s Junior Tennis Champions Center. That’s where Tiafoe often lived as a child, sleeping on a massage table with his twin brother when their father, who worked there as the maintenance man, had no other place to call home. In a sporting narrative as improbable as that of Venus and Serena Williams, Tiafoe, the son of immigrants from the West African nation of Sierra Leone, has emerged as the nation’s most buzzed about tennis prodigy. In December, the Prince George’s County-born teen became the youngest player to win the Orange Bowl, the most prestigious international title for 18-and-under boys, achieving the feat at 15 — more quickly than even Federer, John McEnroe or Bjorn Borg managed. And when the French Open juniors tournament gets under way in Paris on June 1, Tiafoe (pronounced Tee-AH-foe) will be the top-seeded boy. In a country yearning for a home grown men’s tennis star, this puts Tiafoe under immense pressure to deliver on his promise, to justify the countless hours he has devoted to mastering the game and the hundreds of thousands of dollars that tennis center benefactors have invested in his young career. Or, as he puts it: “It’s not like everything was given to me. I had to really work hard for it and earn it.” But, he adds, “I’m very thankful for what I have. I don’t want to let anyone down.” In many ways, this broad-shouldered, 6-foot-1-inch phenom with eight-pack abs is still a boy. Tiafoe doesn’t yet drive, has a 9 p.m. bedtime and shaved for the first time in January. But he possesses a missile of a forehand, a full complement of shots and tactical savvy beyond his years. And he brings all of that to bear in his opening match in Vero Beach, where he schools 30-year-old Oleg Dmitriev, a Russian who has competed on the pro circuit since Tiafoe was 3. Tiafoe starts their first-round match slowly, feeling out the muscular Russian’s game. He blasts a forehand winner to notch his first service break. And each time Dmitriev strings together a few points, Tiafoe switches tactics. If the Russian is feasting on pace, Tiafoe counters with topspin-slathered moon balls. If he plants himself behind the baseline to take big wallops at the ball, Tiafoe flicks drop-shots that die upon clearing the net. And when Dmitriev comes unglued, cursing his poor play and unlucky bounces, Tiafoe proves steadier, displaying the same gap-toothed smile whether he wins a point or loses it. And he does all this, en route to a 6-3, 6-3 victory, without a single glance toward Misha Kouznetsov, his coach and mentor since age 8, for advice or affirmation. “I’m only 16, but I’m like 35 in tennis years,” Tiafoe explains afterward between bites of a grilled chicken-and-cheese sandwich. “I’ve been on a tennis court all my life. The only thing that’s been there longer is the net post.” washingtonpost/sf/sports/wp/2014/05/17/an-improbable-tennis-prodigy/?hpid=z4
Posted on: Sun, 18 May 2014 17:03:36 +0000
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