WASHINGTON, October 28, 2020 (by Michael Dickens)
Frances Tiafoe is one of only two Americans playing in the ATP 250 Astana Open in Nur-Sultan, Kazakhstan this week. As he works toward improving his ranking – currently No. 64 – in hopes of returning to the Top 50, Tiafoe is maturing both as an athlete and as an individual.
Two weeks after losing to Corentin Moutet of France in straight sets at Sardinia on clay, Tiafoe looked solid in his 6-3, 6-2 win over the 74th-ranked Moutet on an indoor hard court Monday evening in Nur-Sultan, the capital city of Kazakhstan. He hit 24 winners, broke the young French player four times in five opportunities and his serve was in danger only two times. Tiafoe never trailed during the one hour and 22-minute match on Center Court at the National Tennis Center.
“I played really well tonight,” Tiafoe, a 22-year-old native of Hyattsville, Md., said Monday during an on-court interview. “I was really intense from the beginning. … I am just happy I came and took care of business.”
.@FTiafoe‘s Monday to-do list:
Crush #ATP250AstanaOpen opener: Check. ✔️
The American is into round two after a straight set win. pic.twitter.com/W92hRbK019
— Tennis Channel (@TennisChannel) October 26, 2020
Tiafoe started the year ranked 47th after reaching a career-high of No. 29 on Feb. 11, 2019. In an effort to build up his ranking, which earlier this year dipped to No. 84 on Feb. 17, he’s split his time between playing in ATP Tour-level events and ATP Challenger tournaments.
“The season post the pandemic has been good for me, so far,” Tiafoe said during an interview with Kazakh TV journalist Dinara Baikadamova. “It’s great to be competing again and although the circumstances are still tough, it feels nice to get back to the game I love so much. It’s been a pretty good year so far, although at the beginning of the year I lost points and that was tough. But now I’m getting back steadily.”
Since reaching the round of 16 at the US Open, Tiafoe played a Challenger in Forli, Italy, reaching the second round. Then, after losing a tough, five-set first round match to Jan-Lennard Struff at the French Open, he strung together five straight wins on clay in Parma, Italy, to capture a Challenger title. Since then, Tiafoe has played in consecutive weeks in Sardinia, Antwerp and now Nur-Sultan.
Tiafoe gets the 🏆
The 22-year-old wins his first title in over two years, defeating Caruso 6-3, 3-6, 6-4 in Parma.#TeamUSATennis | @FTiafoe pic.twitter.com/tTFYQ0wlD6
— USTA (@usta) October 12, 2020
Tiafoe’s win-loss record during this pandemic-shortened season improved to 18-14 following his second-round, 7-5, 6-3 victory over No. 2 seed Miomir Kecmanovic of Serbia, ranked 40th.
“Miomir is one of my better friends on Tour,” Tiafoe said Monday, as quoted by the ATP Tour website. “He is a year younger than me and we have had a couple of good matches before.”
Indeed they have, as Kecmanovic prevailed in a three-set battle in Newport Beach, Calif., on a hard court in January 2018 and Tiafoe won a straight-setter last year at the Miami Open, also on a hard court surface. With Wednesday’s victory, Tiafoe leads their career head-to-head 2-1.
Big Foe building big momentum 👊
🇺🇸 @FTiafoe makes the @AstanaOpen quarters with a 7-5, 6-3 triumph over Kecmanovic 👏 pic.twitter.com/Q15OeU7g4l
— ATP Tour (@atptour) October 28, 2020
“He has been playing really good,” Tiafoe said, continuing his praise of Kecmanovic, whose 17-12 win-loss record includes a title won at Kitzbuhel last month. “He is around his career high right now and I am climbing back. Obviously, we wouldn’t usually play in the second round of an ATP 250, but it is the way it is right now. It is going to be a really good match.”
Tiafoe hit seven aces, won 77 percent of his service points, broke Kecmanovic’s serve four times in 10 tries and outpointed him 79-56 to reach the quarterfinal round.
Tiafoe is a proven example of one who can achieve anything with a positive mind set. “My advice would be to follow your passion,” he said. “Try to be a better person than you were a day before. Stop worrying about the results and try to enjoy and love the process.”
Monfils shutting it down for 2020
No worries – no retirement announcement from Monfils. Just, as I expected, he’s ending his season.
A few weeks off and then hard work to get ready for 2021. pic.twitter.com/C60CuualPQ— Stephanie Myles (@OpenCourt) October 27, 2020
Yanina Wickmayer expecting first child
Jérôme and I are super excited to tell you that we’re expecting our firstborn! ❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️ pic.twitter.com/Cxc0s3Tb3c
— Yanina Wickmayer (@yaninawickmaye8) October 25, 2020
Get well, soon, Kiki
Kiki Bertens underwent surgery due to an achilles injury and will miss the start of 2021.
“The only possibility for me to play without pain again and get the maximum out of trainings and matches was to get a surgery […] so unfortunately I won’t be competing in Australia.” pic.twitter.com/uduL8HG7Cd
— Alex | Tennis 🎾 (@Alex_Boroch) October 27, 2020
The Way Back Machine / Tim Henman 2001
2⃣0⃣th @atptour final of his career#OnThisDay in 2001 Tim Henman defeated Carlos Moyá to set up a title match against @rogerfederer in Basel pic.twitter.com/M8yPVVf9n6
— LTA (@the_LTA) October 27, 2020
What they’re podcasting
NEW POD 🇨🇦🎾🎙️🔽
The always fun and vibrant host @BlairHenley joins us this week to breakdown plenty of storylines including:
– Denis Shapovalov’s need for *balance*
– Vika’s resurgence and Rublev’s great year
– Bad line calls
– The #ErsteBankOpen
👂https://t.co/jfl2fBFI9o pic.twitter.com/nkdThNoNMR— Match Point Canada (@MatchPointCAN) October 27, 2020
Passing shots
• With his first-round victory Tuesday, defending champion Dominic Thiem has won 10 straight matches in Austria including titles in 2019 at the Erste Bank Open in Vienna and the Generali Open in Kitzbuhel.
A STUNNER to finish 🔥
Defending champ @ThiemDomi holds off a brave effort from Sachko 6-4 7-5 to get his title defence underway in Vienna!#ErsteBankOpen pic.twitter.com/jr4v6XwwFs
— Tennis TV (@TennisTV) October 27, 2020
• When 24th-ranked Borna Coric faces World No. 1 and top seed Novak Djokovic on Wednesday in Vienna, he will be attempting to achieve his 10th Top 5 win and the first of his career against Djokovic.
• Djokovic will clinch the year-end No. 1 ranking this week if he wins the ATP 500 Vienna title. However, if he doesn’t, it remains a possibility that World No. 2 Rafael Nadal can end the year at No. 1 if he takes a wild card into the ATP 250 event in Sofia, Bulgaria, Nov. 8-14.
One step closer. ☝️@DjokerNole seals the deal against Filip Krajinovic in straight sets: 7-6(6), 6-3.#ErsteBankOpen pic.twitter.com/kZSRcokQUa
— Tennis Channel (@TennisChannel) October 27, 2020