Tiafoe's breakthrough title in Delray was a pick-me-up for U.S. tennis

What did we learn about Frances Tiafoe at the Delray Beach Open? First and foremost, he knows how to fall down.

Tiafoe’s first crash landing, which came in his quarterfinal against Hyeon Chung, created one of the viral moments of the tennis week. Flabbergasted by a (bad) call from chair umpire Fergus Murphy, Tiafoe expressed his exasperation by collapsing to the court like someone who had just had a heart attack. Eventually, he got back up and, after a few further remarks to Murphy, let the argument drop and went on to win the match. What else did he need to say after that theatrical pratfall?

Tiafoe’s second tumble in Delray was similarly dramatic, but the reasons for it were much happier. After the last point of his final against Peter Gojowczyk was over, and victory was secure, Tiafoe collapsed again and spent a few seconds lying flat on his back. The match wasn’t close, but his stunned reaction was understandable. The 20-year-old Maryland native, who had a career record of 11-32 coming to Delray and had never reached a semifinal before, had just won his first ATP tournament.

“I was not expecting this this week,” Tiafoe told atpworldtour.com. “I was just going to go and play Delpo this week....It’s obviously a dream to win your first title. Now I got that off my back, so it feels pretty good, so early in my career.”

After a poor showing at the Australian Open, and an ugly dustup between Ryan Harrison and Donald Young at the tournament in New York, U.S. tennis was looking for a feel-good story, and few could have fit the bill like a title run from Tiafoe. He plays an exciting and explosive game. He has a backstory—his parents left a civil war behind in Sierra Leone to come to the U.S.—that has been deservedly much-discussed. Best of all, Tiafoe’s a likable, mature, unwhiny guy who knows how to put on a show.

And Delray was his show. After breaking serve, he would sprint to his changeover chair, the way a young Andy Roddick once did. After clinching his wins, he would point his index finger downward, as if to say, “This is my court.” And after Murphy’s obvious bad call, Tiafoe didn’t continue to moan about it, or let it bother him for the rest of the set, the way so many other young players would have.

Tiafoe’s title moves him to No. 61 in the rankings. While Delray is only a 250, and Gojowczyk is hardly an imposing final-round opponent, Tiafoe ran an impressive gauntlet to get to there. Juan Martin del Potro, Hyeon Chung, and Denis Shapovalov were all favored to beat him, and they all had their chances; but Tiafoe wasn’t just the superior athlete in their matches; he was the superior competitor.

As I watched him make his precarious way past each of them, I kept thinking of a phrase that a champion pool player once used to describe his youthful foibles: “I had to learn all the different ways to lose before I could learn to win.”

Tiafoe has lost in lots of different ways. He’s been close to breakthroughs before, against Roger Federer at the U.S. Open and Juan Martin del Potro in Acapulco last year, but hasn’t been able to close. He’s been rolled over by stronger opponents; at Wimbledon last summer, he couldn’t make any inroads against Alexander Zverev in a one-sided straight-setter. And he started 2018 by going out early at a couple of Challenger events.

“I had a ton of tough losses against top guys,” Tiafoe said in Delray.

But Tiafoe’s second-round match against Delpo felt different. This time it was the American who held his own in rallies and found a way to win the points he needed. This time it was Tiafoe who, instead of giving way an early lead, bounced back from a first-set deficit, stole the tiebreaker 8-6, and was the more stubborn player down the stretch. In the past, Tiafoe has relied on his speed and defense too heavily; if a top player was hitting his shots, he struggled to find any answers. Now, against Delpo, he was returning aggressively, using his power and touch to finish points, and bailing himself out with 130-m.p.h. serves.

That pattern held for the rest of his tournament. Tiafoe wasn’t perfect. He squandered seven match points against Chung and allowed Shapovalov back into the second set before closing the door. But he never let two bad games turn into six, and he showed an ability to fit his game to his opponent.

Asked what made the difference in Delray, Tiafoe said, “Serving great. Competing really well. Not really playing so many loose points. Playing my game, playing aggressive and competing each and every point and not letting guys really just roll over me. I’m staying tough, I think that’s big.”

Tiafoe says he feels “back in the mix again,” and wants to end the year in the Top 30. That would be good news for the U.S. game, and for tennis in general. There will be more close losses, more tough days against stronger opponents, more bumps in his upward path. But now we know that when Tiafoe falls down, he can get back up again.

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