Frances Tiafoe grew up inside a tennis centre. His parents emigrated from Sierra Leone, his father worked as live-in caretaker of the Junior Tennis Champions Center in College Park, Maryland, and Frances was on court there at four. The game he built is showman's tennis, a big serve and a whipped forehand played to the crowd, and it carried him to a career-high No. 10 in June 2023. His loudest stage is New York: twice a US Open semi-finalist, in 2022 after beating Rafael Nadal, and again in 2024.
The biggest of his 5 career titles is also the newest. At Halle in June 2026 he beat Taylor Fritz 6-4, 6-4 without facing a break point, the first American to win the grass-court event and the end of seven straight losses to the countryman who had stopped him in five sets in the 2024 New York semi-final. At 28 his best form has returned, and he is still one win short of a first Grand Slam final.
Eleven. That is where Arthur Fils sits in the ATP rankings now, one place outside the world's top ten, after a run to the Cincinnati title carried the 22 year old up from No. 21 and into the top 20. It is a career best for Fils, and it makes him the only Frenchman in that group.
Ranking taleSix. Arthur Fils won the third set of the Cincinnati Open final 6-0, the exact reverse of the 1-6 second set Frances Tiafoe had just taken off him. Fils closed out the match 6-3 1-6 6-0 for his first Cincinnati title.
Match tale