Frances Tiafoe a Wimbledon
Frances Tiafoe after his comeback against Matteo Arnaldi at Wimbledon he “put on a show” in a negative way in the press conference, releasing some very heavy statements. When asked by an American colleague about his difficult moment, which brought him in one year from the top 10 to a much less noble position in the rankings, this was the American’s answer.
“Tennis is brutal, too many ups and downs. I think about where I am now: literally last year I was in the top 10 in the world, and now I’m barely a seed. I’ve lost to clowns… I mean, I hate to say it but I have to be honest. I’m having a bad season, kind of everywhere. I took the game for granted and got a little bit comfortable. You stop having fun and you get into a weird position. Then you forget what you were doing to win. You start doubting yourself and all that kind of stuff. But that’s the game. It’s like anything: nothing is rosy all the time, right? It’s how quickly you can get out of it.”
“There’s always light at the end of the tunnel,” Tiafoe continues. “You either try to find it with small victories or you keep complaining to yourself and playing the victim. That’s when things get darker and darker and darker.”
Really harsh words against his colleagues who defeated him, defined without mincing words as “clowns”. Calling in such a clumsy way valuable tennis players such as Machac, Tsitsipas, Draper, O’Connell, Shelton or Shapovalov just to name a few is a fall in style not insignificant.
It is even more surreal if we think that Frances was nominated for the Stefan Edberg Award for fair play at the end of 2023, and the many theatrical performances orchestrated by Tiafoe in many of his matches. Dear Frances, we are not there at all. Perhaps before speaking of colleagues as “buffoons”, you would do better to look at yourself in the mirror …
Mark Mazzoni
