It's About Time We Talk About Frances Tiafoe...

Francis TFO just lost to Ben Shelton in the final in Houston it's his second consecutive loss to Shelton and I feel this is probably a good time to talk about tfo's tennis although he made that remarkable semi-final run at the 2022 US Open broke into the top 10 and has won titles on all surfaces times have changed the buzz seems to have died down and arm man TFO now appears to be searching and he got me wondering what do tennis fans really think of Francis TFO right now does he truly have the talent to take American men's tennis to the Next Level how would you rate TFO compared to the others among the current crop of American players also did he make a terrible coaching decision last year and what are some areas of his game that need to be brought into Focus faced with many of these questions I did my homework and I was a little bit surprised with what I found as usual we're going to touch on every aspect of tfo's game the good and the bad and then dabble a bit into some of the narratives that fans have about him but before that let me quickly bring you up to speed with tfo's trajectory so far because it's been one hell of a ride one of the reasons why we love TFO has to do with his inspirational backstory the son of immigrants from Sierra Leon who escaped the country due to Civil War TFO grew up in Suburban Washington DC his father worked as a janitor at the junior tennis champion Center in College Park Maryland and Francis and his twin brother Franklin would often sleep in the storage room with one small window in the tennis center while their mother worked the night shifts as a nurse it was only natural to see TFO love the sport as a kid TFO picked up the discarded rackets and just about anything that he saw and he practiced by hitting the ball against a wall TFO didn't get to play tennis with the right equipment until he was about 12 years old when he bagged his first sponsorship deal how did his Junior career pan out tfo's Junior career was extremely successful and he reached the number two spot in the junior rankings at 15 TFO became the youngest player to win the Orange Bowl in 2013 and by 2015 he capped off his Junior career by winning the USA junior National Championship at 17 years old super impressive for a player who didn't even get to train with the right equipment after turning pro in 2015 TFO quickly broke into the top 200 before the end of the year he would then win a couple of Challenger titles and break into the top 100 the following year come 2018 TFO had won his first ATP title at the delr Beach open entering the tournament as a wild card it was a big deal at the time because TFO beat then world number 10 Juan Martin del poo on route to the title with his title win TFO became the youngest American to win an ATP title since Andy rodic did so at the US clay Court champion ships in 2002 coupled with many other impressive performances TFO had now broken into the top 50 and he made the quarterfinal of the Australian Open in 2019 but for the next three seasons he would struggle to make deep runs in big tournaments however 2022 was the year that everything changed after a solid first half of the Season TFO announced himself on the big stage with a sensational usop semi-final run that saw him defeat Nadal in the fourth round and Andre rublev in the quarterfinal tfo's semi-final appearance meant that he became the first American to reach the semis of the US Open also since Andy rodic did so in 2006 he would then lose a gripping five Setter to the eventual Champion Carlos alarz Francis also reached the final of the ATP 500 in Japan and the 250 level tournament in estal all of which propelled him to a top 20 presence that year following a 35 and 25 record in 2022 TFO had the most successful season of his career he won the United cup reached the semi-finals at Indian Wales and also won the US men's clay Court championships in Houston before winning the sto guard open after saving a match point against Jan lonard stru 2023 was a great year for TFO because he broke a five-year title drought and had now won a title on all services hard quartz clay and grass these results got him into the top 10 and he also had the highest win percentage of his career That season it looked like the upward trajectory would continue but that hasn't quite happened it's now 2024 and with the exception of Stephano cipas and Tommy Paul TFO has been losing to opponents ranked way lower than him play players he should have been smacking without any trouble Shang in Hong Kong mahat at the Australian Open giron in Dallas coper in Alcapulco oconnell in Miami the puzzling thing is that all these losses have been in straight sets and if we follow the post US Open stretch of 2023 it's been a similar story a straight sets loss to Alexander buck in Paris straight sets loss to asan KATV in Japan an early round loss to Lorenzo SEO in Shanghai since reaching the US Open quarterfinals and losing to Ben Shelton in what was a winnable match TFO has been on a downward Trend and it looks like that loss took all the air out of his balloon why is that a lazy take would say that everyone around him just got better but in my opinion a better way to go about it would be to take a holistic look at francis's game one aspect of tfo's game that's been long talked about is his unconventional hitchy forehand technique unlike many other players on tour where the racket typically faces up on the takeback TFO has no transition from an outward facing racket to a flat position he just starts out flat with his arm higher and then the racket stays flat until he flips going forward the unusual arm motion brings with it heavy Top Spin and averages twice as much RPM as his backhand I mean it's such an unorthodox swing the kind of forehand that your tennis coach wouldn't recommend when asked how he arrived at that forehand on a tennis podcast here's what TFO said I'll be honest with you I used to have a normal forehand and then I I'll never forget I was played this tournament Les paas in France and I came and I came back and and then all of a sudden I was like I was it's funny cuz I was I was joking around and making fun of dudes forehand on the tour like i' would always go and do that I would see guys on the tour hit and so I was like copying a bunch of guys and coach was like you need to stop doing that cuz then your Strokes get messed up I was like nah come on man and then all of a sudden like I can't I can't hit a forehand and like so like I can't you know tennis so mental you get in your head and then so I'm trying a bunch of things I'm just messing around I'm hitting balls on the wall for like hours hours and just trying to like like just have like cuz I'm all a field player there like it's like how it feels and then I was joking around swinging like that and it felt nice and here we are when looking at his forehand potency per match from the number of matches charted according to data from tennis abstract tfo's forehand Effectiveness doesn't come close to that of any top 10 player well except for Hubert herkos I bet you already knew that and with muscle memory kicking hard the 26-year-old TFO might find it a little bit difficult to change his technique but for what it's worth tfo's forehand as unconventional as it looks has been effective against players but let's get to other aspects of his game tfo's flat backhand often creates a problem for opponents because of its STK contrast to his forehand his ability to take the ball early coupled with his contrasting ground strokes creates a unique challenge for big fo's opponents a lot of the time his backhand down the line is especially great and the style and substance and how about this backand winner against Novak jokovic that's extra special TFO is also able to slice well when needed while his backhand is nowhere close to the center Medvedev jokovic level or even as good as Taylor Fritz is I'll pick it over Ben Shelton's backhand although tfo's game isn't exactly suited for clay because of this flat shot I don't agree with anyone who says big fo's backhand is a weakness because if it is what would you say about Felix a Ali aim Cameron Nori or Stephan OAS a liability probably that being said it would be nice to see some more Point construction from tfo's backhand and his return game could be a lot better as well tfo's speed and accuracy is better and higher than your average when it comes to spot serving which is confirmed from tennis insights data he is right there with the big boys when it comes to First serves but tfo's second serves could use a facelift as he is way below the metrics of other top players as we can see from his percentage of second serves won generally speaking tfo's big first serve is a weapon and the rest of his game is built around it when it comes to other elements of his game The volleys Net game Drop shots TFO doesn't necessarily Stand Out can he hit those shots well yes he [Applause] can however TFO doesn't fall into the category where we might call him a crafty player his game just holds up here for the most part and He Still Remains an offensive baseliner so for sure there is a lot of room for improvement in this area especially with his net play however his athleticism and movement still make him an exciting player to watch he's quick around the court and is capable of Shifting play styles with different angles to make rallies shorter this serves to his benefit TFO alchemize energy into his tennis when all is going to plan we see a focused Francis locked in and with the crowd engaged he brings out his best tennis however when the going gets tough and he isn't quite getting that energy that he needs TFO May sometimes come across as somewhat uninspired not because he actually is but it has more to do with the fact that he sometimes has difficulty finding that extra gear to bring about a change of momentum in a match tfo's lack of intensity in the big moments and his limited ability to find his best tennis when he needs it most goes hand inhand with this next point due to his recent slump questions have been asked about tfo's mental toughness and I find it quite interesting TFO sits pretty much at at the bottom alongside Casper rude and Stephano cipas when it comes to upset scored in the last year for context we're talking about beating a player that's ranked higher than you and TFO hasn't been able to do that even once in the last 52 weeks meanwhile the American has lost to players lower than him 12 times in the same time span if we're taking into consideration a sort of mental toughness rating where we compare how players perform in pressure situations deciding sets and tie breaks how would you grade TFO on a scale from a to F it's one thing to not be able to beat players that are better than you but it's quite another thing to be losing to players you should be smacking personally I don't think TFO is weak when it comes to mental toughness but he doesn't exactly stand out either judging solely on results and performances in the last year it's also quite funny because tfo's match win percentage in 2023 was almost 70% the highest of his career and a top 10 presence in the stat TFO won more matches in 2023 than in any other year of his career but it didn't quite feel that way to some fans why is that after beating Rafa Nadal and reaching the sem of the 2022 US Open and breaking into the top 10 Midway through 2023 fans were hoping that TFO stock would continue to rise but having slipped down the rankings question marks are being asked about his mental toughness but let's narrow down on some of the narratives that tennis fans have about Francis TFO TFO seems just content with his tennis the fame and the money at the moment and isn't motivated to push any harder to be the best version of himself when I usually see takes like this I wonder if some people really know what it means to compete at the highest level in tennis it's a difficult Sport and for big foe probably the hardest 100% hardest sport in the world I I still think it's the hardest sport in the world verdict disagree it'll take some convincing for me to believe that TFO isn't motivated however I do agree that the Optics don't look great at the moment and it's pretty obvious that he has been searching for that winning spark but not winning doesn't mean you're not motivated tfo's personality may seem laid-back we know that he loves to prank people dude I will knock you out and may come across as a goofball but I don't think we should come to a conclusion that he isn't motivated just because of that I doubt anyone was talking about motivation 2 years ago or in the first half of last year slowly but surely TFO is getting back to where he truly belongs which is top 30 he was lucky to make the top 10 with only three singles titles and isn't as talented as Tommy Paul and the other Americans he's just another overachiever I'll admit it doesn't help that all of tfo's ATP singles titles have been 250s but we should know that a year of consistency a deep slam run and winning titles got him in into the top 10 verdict tough one to call out TFO ceiling is definitely higher than just top 30 he's way better than that he finished both 2022 and 2023 inside the top 20 so the top 30 argument doesn't hold water to me that being said it doesn't help to see that big foe has a poor record against top 10 players 1 and three against Center 1 and seven against Zev 0 and5 against meddev 0 and2 against Novak and one and one against alcaraz that's a combined three and 18 against top five players none of those three wins have also been recent TFO fears slightly better against the other top players though but even among the current crop of top Americans TFO hasn't exactly performed he's lost his last two meetings against Seb Corda lost to a much younger Ben Shelton and TFO is 1- six against Taylor Fritz and one and three against Tommy Paul so yeah big foe Is Not Top 10 potential at the moment but that could very well change if he discovers that winning spark again has he already peaked I can't say either way he's going to have a solid career and a shot at the big titles down the line when it comes to Talent or Tommy and Ben Shelton more talented than TFO I'll leave that up to you guys but the truth is is that many tennis fans have vague definitions of talent you shouldn't just say one player is better than another without actually saying how TFO hit a ceiling with Wayne Ferrera he made a good decision by parting ways with him the South African coach who's a former world number six player himself helped TFO with his overall game and brought a lot to the table during their three years working together and I don't disagree with anyone who felt that something was still missing in his game and he was already in a slump towards the end of 2023 three TFO reunited with former USA Coach Diego moyo ahead of this season but his fortunes haven't turned around but I wouldn't Panic just yet I mean it's still early days verdict slightly agree I do understand that some decisions don't make sense at first glance but we all know that coaching relationships often have a timeline to them once it runs its natural course there's no point in continuing to work with each other besides we can't really say what goes on exactly behind the scenes so with the limited information to work with we could best believe that TF did what he thought would be best for him and there should be no shame in that even if it didn't seem like the best way to go about it nothing changes the fact that Wayne Ferrera didn't an excellent job with him TFO let Fame get to his head his career has been downhill since he embraced the spotlight verdict slightly disagree I do understand where this is coming from and I'll even go as far as saying that it sometimes looks like he's just lost some Focus just by judging from the eye test seeing TFO always laughing and joking around even on the court has been a source of frustration for fans who want to see him win more but without trying to sound nice I think we should give players credit for what they've achieved first before the critique TFO especially seeing the conditions in which he started playing tennis it is worth noting that American players on the ATP tour deal with enormous pressure to perform as fans are literally looking for a slam winner in every player especially since 2003 when Andy rodic last won the US Open and when these players don't perform we're often quick to point out a number of factors for instance TFO loves the NBA it's probably another hobby of his so what's wrong if he spend some some free time playing basketball TFO loves to make bold fashion statements also even among other Nike sponsored players wearing the same pattern on their outfits tfo's matching set Cabana style always stands out he does love the spotlight the high-profile sporting events and all the good stuff but that shouldn't be a crime we've seen players like garbino mugara whom we also made a video about as well and other players walk away from the sport just because their priorities changed the harsh reality is that for all the money that they make life as a tennis pro is difficult and we also made a video about that by the way personally I believe the players needs come before our needs as fans so there isn't too much we can do in that regard at the moment you wouldn't be wrong if you said TFO has gotten passed by the younger generation but the good thing is that he can always turn his fortunes around TFO might not have the biggest weapons in any category but with the right guidance he can maximize his talent always an entertaining player to watch I find him easy to root for I don't know about you and while the likes of Sinner alcaraz Runa Medvedev and a few others make winning the biggest titles extreme difficult for anyone not just TFO it's probably a good time to buy the dip for those who bought the TFO hype and feel like they've been let down I'd say hold on just a little bit more because his best days are still ahead if you loved this video please hit that subscribe button and let us know if you want us to do deep Dives on any other player or cover any other topics from around the tours and if you missed out on last week's videos I have them showing on the screen right here for you