American tennis player Francis Tiafoe defeated Italian Matteo Arnaldi in the first round of Wimbledon (6:7, 2:6, 6:1, 6:3, 6:3). Tiafoe overcame a 0-2 deficit in sets at a Grand Slam tournament for the first time in his career. After the match, Francis spoke about the decline of his game in the 2024 season, while insulting some of his opponents.
“It’s tough. There are ups and downs. You think about where you ended up. Last year this week I was 10th in the world and now I’m only seeded at Wimbledon. I lost to clowns. I hate to say this, but I’ll be honest. I took the game for granted and relaxed too much. You stop having fun and you find yourself in a weird situation. And you forget what you did to win. You start doubting yourself and all that. But this is a game. In this, like in any other business, one day you hit a black streak. The question is how quickly you get out of it.
And there’s always light at the end of the tunnel, whether you try to get by with small victories or you keep feeling sorry for yourself and playing the victim, and then everything just gets darker and darker. God helped me a lot. And so did friends and family. They were like, “Dude, start getting high. Your life isn’t that bad compared to what it was in the beginning. You’re taking too much energy out of yourself. Just have fun,” Tiafoe said.
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It’s hard to argue with one part of Tiafoe’s statement. Not long ago he reached the semi-finals of the US Open (2022), eliminating the legendary Rafael Nadal. The following season included the semi-finals of the Indian Wells Masters, titles at 250 tournaments in Houston and Stuttgart and the quarter-finals of the US Open. Overall, Francis may not have dominated at a superstar level, but he played very consistently. A year ago, the American was in the top 10 of the ATP rankings, but now he is only ranked 29th. The decline of the game is evident.
This season, Francis Tiafoe won 14 matches and lost 15. The American suffered a knee injury, which largely determined such a lackluster result. But why does Tiafoe call his rivals “clowns”? It seems extremely disrespectful to his colleagues. And also to himself, if, in his opinion, he was inferior to such individuals.
Francisco Tiafoe
Photo: Julian Finney/Getty Images
In his statement, Francis is talking about 2024, when he was defeated by the following tennis players: Jiongcheng Shan, Tomas Machacs, Marcos Giron, Tommy Paul, Dominik Koepfer (twice), Stefanos Tsitsipas, Christopher O’Connell, Ben Shelton, Pedro Kacin, Federico Coria, Arthur Rinderknesh, Denis Shapovalov, Jack Draper, Rinki Hijikata. Tiafoe considers some of them “clowns”, if not all of the above. After all, Francis did not give any details. In fact, each of these players may perceive his statement as an insult to them.
Perhaps Francis was referring only to those below him in the rankings: Shang, Makhach, Giron, Köpfer, O’Connell, Kachin, Coriya, Rinderknesh, Shapovalov and Hijikata. Yes, it is really unpleasant for an American to suffer so many defeats not from the most famous tennis players, but all these athletes deserve respect. What if Tiafoe was not referring only to them? There are no players of the level of Novak Djokovic, Carlos Alcaraz and Jannik Sinner among those who defeated the American, but the representatives of the top 20 Tsitsipas, Paul and Shelton are relatively stellar. They are ahead of Tiafoe in the rankings along with Draper (No. 28), who overtook him just before Wimbledon. Of course, it is hard to believe that Francis wanted to offend his compatriots Paul and Shelton. He communicates especially closely with them and even becomes friends. Tommy and Ben realize that Francis was speaking out of emotion, although the timing is ambiguous.
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Tsitsipas is the only top player with whom Tiafoe had some kind of conflict. This happened in 2022 at the Laver Cup. Tiafoe defeated the Greek in the decisive match 1:6, 7:6, 10:8 and gave the world team its first victory over the European team in this exhibition tournament.
“When I see Steph on the other side of the net, I start licking my lips. I want to win. So I’m glad it worked out for me. We love Greek yogurt, so this is great,” Tiafoe said.
Francis Tiafoe had a minor conflict with Stefanos Tsitsipas at the 2022 Laver Cup
Photo: Clive Brunskill/Getty Images
As the game progressed, the American also shouted: “Give me all that Greek yogurt.”
Tommy Paul also represented the world team and in one of the transitions he told Tiafoe: “I’ll tease him with dad jokes. Just do your job.” In another crossing, Paul added: “You did great bro. His dad doesn’t even know what to say.” Tiafoe also stated that he doesn’t care if he loses to someone other than Tsitsipas.
It was all too harsh, but it was all just a joke. Tsitsipas publicly declared that Francis had not offended him. Perhaps, deep down, the Greek harbored some kind of resentment, but it was unlikely to be too strong.
“I don’t get distracted like Tiafoe. He communicates with the fans, with the opponent, a million things. But I can’t play like that. I think he said that because he thinks I take tennis seriously. In the last few years he has improved a lot, becoming more serious and professional in his behavior on the court. Before he preferred to have fun than concentrate on tennis,” Stefanos said.
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Tiafoe has always been expressive on the court. He would shout loudly in good and bad moments, argue with fans and judges, sometimes even tear his shirts. But you have to follow certain etiquette boundaries. It would be nice if Francis clarified his latest statement about “clowns” and apologized to those who might be offended by it. Tiafoe did nothing of the sort, although it has been about a day now and his quote is being actively discussed in the media.
