When Frances Tiafoe first began his professional career, Washington Wizards General Manager Tommy Shepard invited him into the NBA team’s locker room after a game. Tiafoe introduced himself to several players in the room, including star Bradley Beal, who is now a three-time NBA All Star.

“I’ve always kept track with him ever since then and just been happy with his success and he’s continued to come to games and shown his support,” Beal told ATPTour.com. “It’s kind of crazy to see the success he’s had and seen his journey and being a guy from D.C., that’s even [made it] much bigger.”

Beal has tried to show his own support for Tiafoe at this US Open, where he has been traveling back and forth from Washington to New York while he prepares for his season to watch Tiafoe compete in the US Open. The 29-year-old has watched his friend defeat 22-time major winner Rafael Nadal and ninth seed Andrey Rublev.

“That’s just kind of how D.C. is. D.C. athletes, we have that special relationship with each other. We always reach out to each other and check in. We support one another. We understand this is a true sports town and so we try to support each other’s teams and each other’s endeavours whether it’s on or off the field or court or whatever it is that we do,” Beal said. “It’s always love shown. It’s no different than that. He’s always been awesome in that regard. He’s always shown love to me, to what we’ve done and has always shown his support so this is me kind of paying it back to him.”

Cameras have caught Beal getting out of his chair after big points to support Tiafoe as he has battled into his first Grand Slam semi-final. He has appreciated the energy the 22nd seed has brought to the court, which has earned Tiafoe the full backing of the New York crowd.

.@RealDealBeal23 is loving every minute of this match.@FTiafoe | @WashWizards | #USOpen pic.twitter.com/bp32cWxsge

— US Open Tennis (@usopen) September 5, 2022

“He’s hungry. I think people gravitate towards him because of his passion. It’s all genuine love and just his true character. He doesn’t force anything, it’s just who he is,” Beal said. “He always has a smile on his face, he’s always positive. He’s always encouraging. That’s always someone you want to surround yourself with. He’s kind of a magnet to a lot of people.

“And then his play, he plays with such grace and passion and everybody feeds off of that. He’s a crowd-pleaser in so many ways. People love to watch him play. He’s energetic. I love the fact that he’s always focussed. He has fun with it and I think that’s the most important thing.”

^{Photo Credit: Sarah Stier/Getty Images}
During Tiafoe’s match against Rublev, Beal wore a shirt that said ‘Why Not?’, which is similar to a rubber bracelet ‘Big Foe’ wears that reads ‘Why Not Me?’ They share a mindset and Beal has enjoyed seeing his friend’s hard work pay off in person.

“Especially being a pro athlete myself, I have a huge respect for all athletes and what they do, but to be able to see it up close and personal, it’s a different ballgame. To be able to see him in his element and to see him in his zone, it’s very similar. We have those same moments in our game, in our sport as well,” Beal said. “But to acknowledge it and be able to see it in a different realm, there’s nothing like it. You can do nothing but respect it and support it.” 

On the biggest stages, some athletes are so locked in that they do not fully enjoy the atmosphere. Not only does Tiafoe do so — he embraces it and uses it to his advantage, riding the crowd’s support in many matches. Beal has liked seeing Tiafoe focus and have fun at the same time.

“It’s encouraging for sure, it’s definitely motivating in so many ways to be able to see that. It just motivates me to continue to work hard, to continue to push and continue to be better,” Beal said. “To see his journey and to see who he’s become and the tennis player he is right before our eyes has been amazing.”

Beal has watched tennis on television, but Tiafoe’s win against Nadal was his first experience taking it in live. He plans to watch more matches in person moving forward, as he has gained further appreciation for the sport.

“The intensity of it [has stood out]. It is a whole new ball game. The shape that these athletes are in and you have to be in, you have to basically be prepared to play one-on-one for five hours. That’s a mind game in so many ways. It’s a physical beatdown, but with a mental game [within] the game I would say,” Beal said. “It is exemplary. It is definitely a sight to see as a pro. To get it through a different lens has been awesome.”

Will Beal make it to Arthur Ashe Stadium on Friday to continue supporting Tiafoe as he tries to make his first Grand Slam final? The basketball star is happy to do anything he can to support his friend.

“Everybody’s been saying like I don’t have a choice now!” Beal said, cracking a laugh. “I wouldn’t be surprised if you see me at the match.”

Back in 1972, the ATP was formed at the US Open in a move that revolutionised the sport. Fast forward 16 years and the world’s leading players arrived in New York at the hard-court major demanding further change.

As part of ATP’s anniversary celebrations, ATPTour.com has identified 50 game-changing moments of the past 50 years and collated them in an immersive feature. Here we look at how the ‘Parking Lot Press Conference’ in 1988 paved the way for the creation of the ATP Tour in 1990.

With the ATP logo hastily duct-taped to the podium, a rented PA system and a parking lot for a venue, the press conference of 30 August 1988 that crystallized momentum for the birth of the ATP Tour could be called ‘no frills’ at best. But as ATP CEO Hamilton Jordan delivered ‘Tennis at the Crossroads’, a critique of the opportunities and problems facing men’s professional tennis, the gathering outside the gates of the US Open had immediate — and lasting — impact.

Its roots were long-standing, but in the space of 16 months men’s professional tennis changed irrevocably due to the foresight of the ATP Board, the world’s leading players and the political nous of one man — a former Chief of Staff to US President Jimmy Carter — determined to make a positive change for a sport that had been in a state of flux.

When the Association of Tennis Professionals was created in 1972, the founding fathers had debated the option of creating their own circuit. But, without the financial security and the confidence to do it, it joined tournament directors and the International Tennis Federation (ITF) to form the Men’s International Professional Tennis Council (MIPTC), which ran the men’s circuit from 1974 to 1989.

By late 1986, players were unhappy with the way tennis was being marketed and frustrated by regularly seeing its three Council representatives outvoted by a total of six ITF and tournament reps. Cue Jordan’s intervention, and one of the most momentous days in the sport’s history.

From classic matches to legendary players, relive all 50 game-changing moments.

Read more special features in our ATP50 series.

In 2019, Michael Locksley became the head coach of the football team at the University of Maryland. His previous job was as offensive coordinator at the University of Alabama, one of the most successful sports programmes at any level in any sport in the world.

Locksley was told a young professional tennis player wanted to meet with him to learn more about what made Alabama successful. That player was Frances Tiafoe.

“He came up to my office to meet me and had a lot of questions,” Locksley recalled. “What is that programme about? How do they win? How do they do it consistently?”

Locksley had first met Tiafoe when he was a young teen — Tiafoe is a fixture on the sporting scene in the District of Columbia, Maryland and Virginia, otherwise known as the ‘DMV’. But this first formal interaction impressed the coach, and from then on he has become a mentor to the 24-year-old, who on Wednesday advanced to his first Grand Slam semi-final at the US Open.

“Anyone who knows him knows that he has an elite athleticism about him,” Locksley said. “I know he’s been right there at the cusp a few times. With the questions he asked about Alabama, he was trying to find that secret sauce or that extra advantage or edge that would help him get over the top, which we’ve seen here firsthand at Flushing Meadows.

“It’s not necessarily about the physical part as much as it is about the mental approach, and I think that’s what he’s taken away from the relationship that he and I share.”

Locksley has come across many people during his time, but he has been especially impressed with Tiafoe’s willingness to seek advice. The American is the son of two immigrants from Sierra Leone and his father was a janitor at a tennis facility in Maryland. It was there that Tiafoe picked up the game and now he is competing on the biggest stages in the world.

Given where he comes from, Tiafoe is doing everything in his power to take his career as far as possible. Every step of the way, he does it with an unforgettable smile on his face.

“I think it’s the humility that the kid shows… To know his story and what he’s overcome to get to where he is, that is what drew me [to him],” Locksley said. “A guy like him, who has had most of the odds stacked against him and to overcome them and become not just the tennis player, but the person that he is, it’s been very rewarding to watch and see.

“He has a personality that makes everyone seem as though it’s not the first time they’ve met. You walk away after you met and he’s got that infectious smile, the personality and just really a welcoming personality.”

^{Tiafoe and Locksley at the University of Maryland. Photo Credit: Maryland Athletics}
Locksley added that with such a welcoming personality, people will be gravitate to Tiafoe. Although there is nothing wrong with that, a key is to separate that from the work that must be done.

“One of the things we talked about is if you want to be a consistent winner, you’ve got to develop that killer instinct and develop a championship routine. The work is done in the dark, it’s done in your training, preparing your body for a long Tour season. Mentally being in the right frame of mind where you’re not being motivated by outside entities, but self motivation,” Locksley said. “If you want to be a champion, sometimes you have to make sacrifices and I think over the last couple of years he’s embraced the sacrifices it takes and the discipline it takes to win at a high level, especially at that level.”

That has been a key focus for Tiafoe’s coach, Wayne Ferreira, who has worked with the American since just before the start of the Covid-19 pandemic in 2020. The former World No. 6 has worked hard to add structure and focus to his charge’s game. From going for a run without his phone to his diet, Tiafoe has taken many steps in the right direction.

“He liked a lot of candy and chocolates and cookies. He’d eat at unusual times. He missed breakfast a lot. Didn’t really have a good set of times on how [or] when to eat before matches, what to eat after matches. You need a little guidance on that side, and he’s done well on that side of it,” Ferreira said. “Practising, it’s about investing and putting in the best practice you can. We don’t practise long, because I’d rather that he practise properly. So we try to go out there and do the best that we can for the time we are doing it. We always try to work on specifics, things to improve.

“It’s just being professional… In my opinion, [he] was not really professional enough.”

There have been times since Tiafoe corrected that when he has wanted immediate results for his investment. That did not always come.

But the 24-year-old is now seeing the fruits of his labour in New York. According to Locksley, one of the biggest takeaways from his time at Alabama was embracing the process, a message he has passed along to Tiafoe.

“It’s all about the process and not focussing on results as much as each day, going out and really dedicating yourself and having the focus to eliminate as many distractions as you can. To work on your game each and every practice you have to be the best version of yourself,” Locksley said. “Everybody knows that he is an elite athlete on the Tour. Not very many people have that athleticism he has, but I think for him at a young age [it was important] to recognise that talent is only going to get you so far.

“The mental edge comes from mentally preparing yourself to play in big events like the one he is in at the US Open, and the big thing with that is continuing to eliminate the distractions, staying focussed, keeping ‘the main thing’ the main thing and I think he’s done a tremendous job of that so far.”

^{Photo Credit: Sarah Stier/Getty Images}
Tiafoe has received support this week from plenty of celebrities, including LeBron James and Jamie Foxx. Washington Wizards Stars Bradley Beal and Kentavious Caldwell-Pope have been at Arthur Ashe Stadium to support him, too.

If you look carefully at Tiafoe’s right wrist, he wears several rubber bracelets with motivational messages on them. One is a “locked in” bracelet from the University of Maryland’s football programme. Others were gifts from Los Angeles Lakers assistant coach Phil Handy.

“[It is] anything just to give you a little inspiration. Look at that: Yeah, why not me? You put the time in, so why not me?” Tiafoe said. “Believe in yourself, it’s so big. You have to believe in yourself before anybody else does.”

No matter what happens in the US Open semi-finals against third seed Carlos Alcaraz, Tiafoe has earned his place in the last four. Win or lose, millions around the world could learn from his journey.

“I think it’s a great message for anybody really that you can end up achieving greatness from where you are coming. Frances has been lucky in some ways of having great help from people along the way,” Ferreira said. “But it’s a great story. Hopefully there will be a movie about it one day. But he has to win the Grand Slam first. You only get movies if you do well.

“But his story is very unique, and it’s a great story. He’s very humbled. He’s a very, very nice individual. Very great heart and kind. You’ve got to love him. He’s truly special.”

Jannik Sinner played his part in a US Open classic against Carlos Alcaraz in the early hours of Thursday morning. The Italian hammered the ball with unrelenting force throughout the five-hour, 15-minute clash, but was unable to prevail, with the Spaniard showing his fighting spirit and quality to advance in five sets.

The 21-year-old, who squandered a match point in the fourth set, admitted that his loss against Alcaraz will haunt him for a while.

“I had some tough losses. This is in the top list,” Sinner said in his post-match press conference. “Concerning the rest of the tournament, I think this one will hurt for quite a while. But tomorrow I [will] wake up, trying to somehow take only the positives, trying to take away the other part.”

Sinner edged past Daniel Altmaier and Ilya Ivashka in five sets en route to his fourth Grand Slam quarter-final. However, with a first major semi-final on the line, the 11th seed was unable to find a way past Alcaraz in their fourth ATP Head2Head meeting.

Despite his disappointment, Sinner was pleased with his showing on Arthur Ashe Stadium in a performance that captured the world’s attention.

“It was a good match from my side and from his side,” Sinner said. “I could finish in three sets, could finish in four sets, could finish in five sets. The level was high. At some point I didn’t serve that well, but he was returning well. It was a good match. Obviously the crowd was good. For me only the second time on Ashe. So it was a good match for sure.”

Sinner leaves Flushing Meadows holding a 42-12 record on the season. The Italian captured his sixth tour-level title when he defeated Alcaraz in the Umag final in July and is up to No. 11 in the Pepperstone ATP Live Rankings following his run in New York.

“I feel good. I think we have improved a lot physically in the last month, so I was ready for a tough, tough battle. I feel physically more ready to play these kinds of matches for hours and hours,” Sinner said when reflecting on his recent progress.

“Many positives I think in this week. The first week I didn’t play my best tennis, for sure. But today I raised it because he’s the kind of player who makes you raise the level.”

The 2019 Intesa Sanpaolo Next Gen ATP Finals titlist is currently 14th in the Pepperstone ATP Live Race To Turin. The Italian will be aiming to finish the season strong and qualify for the Nitto ATP Finals in November, having competed as an alternate last year.