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As the consummate team player on the rare occasions that it’s called for in a highly individual sport like tennis, it hurt Frances Tiafoe to his heart not to play in the Paris Olympics just a few weeks ago.
“Really tough decision for me, not easy,” Tiafoe told The Post just five days before he begins his U.S. Open campaign for the Grand Slam glory that has eluded him — and every other male American tennis player — since Andy Roddick won his home major way back in 2003.
“I love representing my country. I love being American, I love where I’m from,” said the 26-year-old Maryland native, who is the son of Sierra Leonean immigrants. “But you know … it paid off.”
Indeed, after Tiafoe passed up going from the grass of Wimbledon back to the clay — not his favorite surface — of the French Open site, he is coming in hot to the last slam of the year while other players are seemingly burned out.
The shrewd move resulted in Tiafoe making Monday’s final at the Cincinnati Open, the last big tune-up before the U.S. Open, and sending him back into the Top 20 — No. 20 to be exact — of the rankings.
He’s back where he belongs, joining Taylor Fritz (No. 12), Ben Shelton (No. 13), Tommy Paul (No. 14) and Sebastian Korda (No. 16) to make it five Americans in the Top 20 for the first time since October 1996.
After reaching a career-high No. 10 in June 2023, Tiafoe was barely seeded — at No. 29 — in the top 32 players when Wimbledon came around the first week of July.
But then something clicked in Big Foe — as he is affectionately known — and he pushed eventual champion Carlos Alcaraz to five scintillating sets in a third-round thriller, losing 5-7, 6-2, 4-6, 7-6 (2), 6-2.
But having reunited on Arthur Ashe Stadium earlier Wednesday — the same court where they staged another epic five-setter in the 2022 U.S. Open semifinals before Alcaraz went on to win his first of four Grand Slams — there is still bromance in the air for the pair.
“I have the ultimate respect for that guy,” said Tiafoe of his 21-year-old foe. “And so to see him telling me today, ‘You know, these are the type of runs [at the Cincinnati Open] you deserve to be having,’ and, ‘I want to see you continue to do these things’ … he knows me doing well helps the game.
“And that’s just a fact. I think us, with our personality and stuff, we can really continue to help push this game forward. And, you know, I think we have duty to the game to give it our all and continue to do well.”
Tiafoe — who also recently began working with David Witt, former coach of women’s tennis stars Venus Williams and Jessica Pegula — is also already feeling a duty to give back while still in the heart of his career.
That is why he took part in a clinic for the local National Junior Tennis League on Wednesday.
And he also has his Frances Tiafoe Fund with the USTA.
Having gotten the opportunity to play the game because his father was the head of maintenance at the Junior Tennis Champions Center in College Park, Maryland, Tiafoe now wants other kids to see themselves in him.
“I was once in that position, and now to be able to pay it forward, that just gives me life,” he said. “I love seeing these kids happy, seeing me. I love being able to put some smiles on kids faces. That’s what it was for me growing up.”
And he added with a laugh, it’s better to do “when I’m as relevant as you’re going to be … and really have an impact, rather than when I’m old and retired and people don’t really remember you.”
