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.
Thirteen. That is where Alejandro Davidovich Fokina now stands in the ATP rankings, up 13 places from 26, a career high one place past his old best of 14 and an entry into the top 20.
Ranking taleOne. That is how many games Alejandro Davidovich Fokina won in the opening set of the Shanghai Masters final, and he still beat Rafael Jodar 1-6, 7-6, 6-4 to take the first Masters 1000 title of his career, the biggest of his three.
Match tale