From 2014 | An improbable tennis prodigy: Francis Tiafoe, the son of immigrants from the West African nation of Sierra Leone, has emerged as the nation’s most buzzed about tennis prodigy.
VERO BEACH, Fla. — 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.
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 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.
Francis, left, and Franklin Tiafoe began taking tennis lessons at 5, but it was Francis who was quickly consumed by the sport. There was a lightning-quick pace to the construction of the Junior Tennis Champions Center — the Washington region’s premier tennis training facility —when Francis Tiafoe Sr. signed on as a day laborer in 1999.
Chronically strapped for cash, Tiafoe Sr. turned it into two jobs: keeping the complex clean by day and taking care of the clay courts by night. He had never played tennis in his life. But he quickly learned to water and roll the courts and sometimes completely resurface them, hauling dozens of 75-pound bags of clay to each court.
When Kouznetsov left at around 8:15 each night, he’d spot Francis on the outdoor courts hitting serves past dusk. When he arrived at 8 a.m., he’d find him hitting balls against a wall. “He said to me when he was 6 years old: ‘I want to be great in this sport,’ ” his father remembers. “ ‘I want to be the best to ever come from this place.’ ”Francis Tiafoe literally grew up around tennis, often spending nights at a Maryland tennis center where his father worked. Could a future U.S. champion be in the making?Kouznetsov first noticed Francis at 8, struck by how intently he listened and how hard he tried.
His parents — who met in Maryland almost two decades ago and married last year — saw none of this. They have led a precarious financial existence since arriving in the United States.Alphina Tiafoe, 46, works double shifts on weekends at a Bethesda nursing home and goes to school three days a week with the goal of becoming a registered nurse. Tiafoe Sr., who left the tennis center after 11 years in an unsuccessful attempt to launch his own business, works at a Hyattsville car wash detailing cars.
“When your kid is top in the nation, top in the world, maybe, and you don’t have the opportunity to sit there, it’s tough,” Tiafoe Sr. says. “But I let that go, because there is time for everything. I have to be grateful because if it’s not for this tennis center, we are not having this conversation.”
Tiafoe runs a series of conditioning sprints after his USTA Pro Circuit tournament match at the Eagle Landing Tennis Complex in Orange Park, Fla. Tennis is rife with cautionary tales of promising juniors who never panned out. But two other American boys who won Orange Bowls have been relegated to sporting obscurity: Brian Baker, who compiled an 18-30 record in the pro ranks, and Timothy Neilly, who peaked at No. 852.
Because he is an amateur, Tiafoe can accept only nominal prize money to cover his travel expenses. But his parents are in no rush for their son to turn pro, despite the huge financial windfall it might represent. In fact, they would like to see him attend college first. The twins do their homework side by side at the dining room table. On a recent night, Francis, a sophomore at the tennis academy’s school, which he has attended since fifth grade, works on an English assignment. And Franklin, who recently transferred from Eleanor Roosevelt to DeMatha with financial help from a tennis center mentor, studies biology.
Before the rebels could overrun Freetown, she won the U.S. government’s visa lottery and a coveted green card to work in the United States.
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