ATP Tour

The joy of Frances Tiafoe

Long before the US Open women’s semi-finals were played inside Arthur Ashe Stadium on Thursday, a small group from Maryland stood by the net to pose for a photo.

Among the players in the photo were men’s singles semi-finalist France Tiafoe, women’s doubles finalist Robin Montgomery and the former No. 53 player in the PIF ATP Rankings Denis Kudla. All three grew up at the Junior Tennis Champions Center in College Park, Maryland, where Tiafoe famously slept sometimes because his father, Frances Sr., was the head of maintenance at the facility.

It was at the JTCC that Kudla remembers seeing Tiafoe and his brother, Franklin Tiafoe, when they were four years old. Kudla, six years the twins’ elder, did not process the story that was unfolding in front of him until years later.

“I just remember he was that goofy kid with this iconic smile and was somebody that just loved tennis and just wanted to be around the older kids. I thought nothing of his game, really. It was just good energy,” Kudla told ATPTour.com of Tiafoe. “We teased him a little bit, but at the same time, you could just tell he wanted to learn from us, even when we didn't even know that we were teaching him stuff. That was something I definitely remember. And then as he got older, 13, 14 and was progressing so quickly with Les Petits As and winning Orange Bowl so young, I remember thinking, ‘Okay, he’s pretty good’.”

At the time, Kudla, who had recently embarked on his career on the ATP Tour, was unsure how Tiafoe’s game would translate to the professional circuit, particularly because of his forehand grip and that, “I wouldn't say he was the best athlete when he was younger”.

“Clearly now he's an absolute specimen, so I was incorrect about that,” Kudla said.

“But something that always stood out was just the joy he had playing. I think that was the most memorable thing for me, and I think that's also the credit he deserves. He brings so much passion into the game and [that is part of] why he's been so good for so long. He's always had that incredible perspective of it — of just true joy of the process and competing, and just being the absolute entertainer and competitor.”

Everyone talks about Tiafoe’s feel for the game, his joy and his smile. But Kudla, who now coaches at the JTCC and is in New York working with Montgomery, believes that there is one thing that is sometimes overlooked.

“I think he's one of the smartest players I've ever seen with just understanding the mind and understanding the game,” Kudla said. “I think he understands people in a unique way, just being so observant when he was younger. It's been a superpower on Tour, and I think that is attributed to how good his tennis IQ is. He was just observing and listening. He never argued, never talked back, never did any of that. He just listened. He was such a good listener… It was pretty crazy to be raising in a tennis centre, but it worked out pretty nicely.”

Both on and off the court, Tiafoe is the same “goofy kid” today who Kudla met more than two decades ago. Take the 2023 United Cup as an example. Both men were representing Team United States at the mixed-teams event. Kudla arrived wearing a hat, which was concealing his newly bald head.

“I was like, ‘Wow, nobody has any idea that I just shaved my head for the first time’,” Kudla recalled. “They just thought I had a high fade haircut. And then I took it off for our United Cup pictures with no hats, and everyone's eyes just lit up, jaws dropped. And he was like ‘Bald Head Kudla!’ He was just the loudest guy in the room after that.”

Tiafoe still calls his friend Bald Head Kudla. And the 34-year-old appreciates that the four-time ATP Tour titlist has never changed.

“I think it’s incredibly important how humble he stayed and he has such a good perspective. He has every single kind of trap out there that could sway him the other way,” Kudla said. “But he's kept his roots close to him and obviously the relationship that we have hasn’t changed, and we've always been very close. It's been cool to see that we both have the same passion for where we came from, and the love of the game.”