My parents fled civil war to move to USA – I had to sleep in a storeroom at local tennis club before US Open dream
pTiafoe#8217;s parents, Constant and Alphina, had to make the decision to flee the civil war in Sierra Leone, Africa and move to the United States in the 1990s./p
figure id=attachment_23718828 class=wp-caption alignnone style=width: 970pximg decoding=async loading=lazy src=https://www.the-sun.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/6/2023/08/frances-tiafoe-united-states-returns-841249102.jpg?strip=allamp;w=960 alt= class=alignnone size-thesun-article-image wp-image-23718828 width=960 height=640 /figcaption class=wp-caption-text/figcaptionfigcreditGetty/figcredit/figureFrances Tiafoe is ranked No. 1o in the world of tennis[/caption]
figure id=attachment_23718830 class=wp-caption alignnone style=width: 970pximg decoding=async loading=lazy src=https://www.the-sun.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/6/2023/08/francis-tiafoe-usa-action-mexican-841249146.jpg?strip=allamp;w=960 alt= class=alignnone size-thesun-article-image wp-image-23718830 width=960 height=640 /figcaption class=wp-caption-text/figcaptionfigcreditGetty/figcredit/figureTiafoe#8217;s parents fled from Sierra Leone#8217;s civil wars in Africa in the 1990s[/caption]
figure id=attachment_23718831 class=wp-caption alignnone style=width: 970pximg decoding=async loading=lazy src=https://www.the-sun.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/6/2023/08/usas-frances-tiafoe-reacts-facing-841249100-1.jpg?strip=allamp;w=960 alt= class=alignnone size-thesun-article-image wp-image-23718831 width=960 height=557 /figcaption class=wp-caption-text/figcaptionfigcreditAFP/figcredit/figureHe had to sleep in a storeroom at a local tennis club before his US Open dream[/caption]
pFrances was born on January 20, 1998, along with his twin brother Franklin, in Maryland./p
pHe grew up in College Park, Maryland as Frances#8217; father helped build the nearby tennis academy, Junior Tennis Champions Center, as a member of the construction crew./p
pConstant also had to work as a facility#8217;s maintenance man and would often spend his nights in a back room at the complex./p
pFrances, meanwhile, slept there at times in the storeroom at the local tennis club./p
pHe#8217;d also sleep on a massage table and his twin brother would sometimes pull out a closet and sleep there./p
pThe Tiafoe brothers lived with their father at the tennis center for five days a week for 11 years./p
pFrances and his brother began playing tennis regularly at age 4./p
pAt age 8, Mikhail Kouznetsov began coaching Tiafoe at the facility and the rest is history./p
pIn 2017, in the first round of his third US Open, the 19-year-old Frances took legend Roger Federer to five sets.nbsp;/p
pAnd in 2019, Tiafoe would be ranked 35th in the world at the age of 21./p
pLast year, at the US Open, Frances pulled off a stunning upset with his four-set win over the Spanish icon Rafael Nadal./p
pTiafoe is now a top-10 player and one of America#8217;s biggest hopes to end the nation#8217;s near 20-year grand slam drought on the men#8217;s side./p
pFrances credits Kouznetsov for helping him during his childhood when times were rough financially./p
p“He saw me serving on my own, kind of helped me, we bonded,#8221; Tiafoe told a href=https://www.gq.com/story/frances-tiafoe-tennis-profile target=_blank aria-label=GQ (opens in a new tab) rel=noreferrer noopenerGQ /ain 2019. /p
p#8220;He helped me for nine years; his wife would take me to tournaments; he paid my entry fees./p
p#8220;I would stay at his house once, twice a week. /p
p#8220;We had such a great bond. /p
p#8220;If it wasn#8217;t for him, I definitely wouldn#8217;t be where I am today. /p
p#8220;He gave me a tremendous amount of opportunity.”/p