Frances Tiafoe ready to get tennis game back on track at Delray Beach Open
BOCA RATON — There’ll be no All-Star Weekend festivities for Frances Tiafoe this year.
As the Delray Beach Open reached its conclusion last February, Tiafoe was in Utah playing in the celebrity game and schmoozing with NBA stars.
That’s not happening in 2024. Tiafoe, who has residences in Boynton Beach and Boca Raton, is in a little rut. He needs more tennis now — not basketball.
“Not this year, unfortunately," Tiafoe told The Palm Beach Post Wednesday in a sit-down at the Delray Beach Tennis Center. “I’ve had a slow start to the season so I decided I needed to play more matches."
Tiafoe, who hasn’t played Delray since 2020, will open Thursday against qualifier Radu Albot, the 2019 Delray champion and last year’s semifinalist. Tiafoe won here in 2018 and is primed to win it again six years later. He was bounced in the Australian Open in the second round and he went out early last week in Dallas.
In fact, Tiafoe has won only three matches since losing in last year's U.S. Open quarterfinals.
At the 2022 U.S. Open semifinals, his biggest breakthrough, Michelle Obama came to watch him play as he captured the world with blistering groundstrokes, an infectious on-court smile and a rags-to-riches tale.
Tiafoe, ranked 15th, is arguably the most famous American male player, though defending Delray champion Taylor Fritz and Tommy Paul, of Boca Raton, are ranked slightly ahead of him now. All three are in the Delray draw.
“It’s a big week," Tiafoe said. “I want to win a lot of matches. I’m definitely ready to put to foot on my gas. It would be big especially, where I’m sitting right now. It would be huge. It would be my first time winning a title that I won before. It’s been a long span. That’s what I‘m going for. I would love to win here."
Tiafoe's brother, Franklin, had been tennis pro at Delray Beach Tennis Center
Tiafoe loves living in Palm Beach County — a vibrant tennis community where he gets recognized a lot when he’s trying to shop at Publix. His twin, Franklin, was a tennis pro at the Delray Beach Tennis Center for two years before recently accepting a coaching job at Morgan State in Baltimore.
“This is definitely home for me," Tiafoe said of the Delray Beach Tennis Center. “I practice here all the time, spent a lot of time here. Tennis in Florida is really big. People really enjoy it. I definitely like being here. Great fans — people who enjoy tennis.
“I like living here," Tiafoe added. “Great people who are super nice and chill and a super big tennis community here."
With a spotty ending to the 2022 campaign, Tiafoe, 25, parted ways with longtime coach Wayne Ferreira. In December, he hired Boca Raton guru Diego Moyano, Coco Gauff’s former coach.
”I was working with the same guy for four years," Tiafoe said. “I needed a change. I had a tough end to the year. I was really out of it. It’s been a good partnership so far. I wish I could get him better results. It’ll come."
An issue early in his career, Tiafoe hopes Moyano gets him to be more consistently focused.
“Lifting my intensity by holding me accountable," Tiafoe said. “That’s the biggest thing. I know what my game can do and can be trouble for a lot of guys. But how do you get me to be consistent each week, which I have been the last couple of years? But I have higher standards."
This is a crucial run for Tiafoe as the American hardcourt winter season is here with the big ATP events at Indian Wells and the Miami Open coming up in March. Tiafoe also will play Acapulco next week.
“Intensity is the biggest thing, whether it’s being in the gym, intensity everywhere,” Tiafoe said. “Playing with a lot of energy. He knows when I’m at my best. He’s trying to maximum my highs and minimize lows."
Tiafoe is friends with Gauff, who lives in Delray Beach. He watched Gauff’s U.S. Open championship from Florida since he got ousted in the quarterfinals.
“We get along really well," Tiafoe said. “A person of color winning that at 19, It was an unbelievably big moment. I couldn’t be happier for her and her family. It inspired people. Hopefully, she keeps going."
That’s the impact Tiafoe still thinks he — or Fritz, Ben Shelton or Paul — can still make. No American man has won a Grand Slam title since 2003.
More: Tennis clinics for kids with Autism help kick off Delray Beach Open
“I had a great look at it," Tiafoe said, referring to his U.S. Open run of 2022. “It’s going to happen if we keep putting ourselves in these positions. But it’s really tough, man."
For now, Tiafoe is trying to just win an ATP event. “I’ll get back," Tiafoe said. “I’ll get out of it. There was a little burnout. I had high hopes at the U.S. Open and didn’t get it done. You have a chance to do something special every week."
A diehard NBA fan, specifically the Washington Wizards, Tiafoe just needs to stay away from All-Star Weekend.
“Now that I’m down here, I get to a lot more Miami Heat games," Tiafoe said. “Jimmy (Butler) is my guy but I’m a Wizard."
Delray Beach Open
Through Sunday
Delray Beach Tennis Center
TV: TENNIS
2023 champ: Taylor Fritz
This article originally appeared on Palm Beach Post: Frances Tiafoe skipping NBA All-Star Weekend to play Delray Beach Open
