TIAFOE LAUNCHES A CHARITABLE FUND WHERE HE GREW UP

By HOWARD FENDRICH AP Tennis Writer

COLLEGE PARK, Md.

(AP) — Frances Tiafoe stood with his hands on his hips and feigned disappointment yesterSSday after his partner during a doubles drill dumped an overhead into the net. Moments earlier, on the same courts at the Junior Tennis Champions Center (JTCC) where he learned the game not far from the nation’s capital, Tiafoe jokingly chastised another of his temporary teammates — all aged 10 or under — for not celebrating a good shot properly, explaining the importance of yelling and punching the air.

because she is improving. But, at the end of the day, it will only cause me to push myself harder because I know she’s coming. She’s still young, so I have the respect, but I am getting older.

“So I will be looking forward to the day when she challenges me. But I am just glad to have her following in my footsteps.”

A semifinalist at the U.S. Open last year and now ranked in the ATP Top 10, he took part in the clinic with dozens of kids after a ceremony to announce the launch of The Frances Tiafoe Fund in conjunction with the USTA Foundation, the charitable arm of the sport’s national federation. “I’ve wanted to do this for a long time. It’s something I’ve always been passionate about. I love people. I love helping people,” the 25-year-old Tiafoe said. “I’m a product of this place. I’m a guy who was given a chance — who wouldn’t have really had one — and look what I was able to do with it. I feel like more people need to be given that, especially in this area, and especially people who look like me. I know how much influence I have in this area, so I’m happy to start it here in D.C.”

His parents emigrated from Sierra Leone in the 1990s during a civil war there. They moved to Maryland, where his dad helped construct the JTCC in College Park, then worked as a maintenance man there.

So that’s where, and why, Frances and his twin brother, Franklin — who took part in yesterday’s oncourt drills, too — picked up tennis.