Andy Roddick was very frank on what he thinks contributed to Francis Tiafoe’s run to the US Open semi-finals.
The 26-year-old has been enduring a difficult 2024 season in which he fell out of the ATP’s top 20.
But since the start of the North American hard court swing, Tiafoe began to find his form and that portion of the season culminated in a run to the US Open semi-finals.
He is now back inside the ATP’s top 20, and Andy Roddick believes he knows what helped Tiafoe achieve that.
What did Andy Roddick say to Francis Tiafoe about missing the Olympic Games?
Some players chose not to compete at the Paris Olympic Games and Francis Tiafoe was one of them. He preferred to use the maximum amount of time to play on the North American hard courts to get into shape for the US Open rather than compete for an Olympic medal on the clay.
It was a decision that paid off as Tiafoe reached the Atlanta Open quarter-finals, before reaching the last four in Washington DC prior to making the Cincinnati Open final.
Tiafoe was ready for a solid run at Flushing Meadows and that is exactly what happened as he made the last four for the second time in three seasons.
During the latest episode of his ‘Served’ podcast, Roddick thinks choosing not to go to the Paris Games helped Tiafoe’s preparation for his solid US Open run.
“I got into a conversation with Frances before the US Open and we just kind of… I just said hey way to turn your year around. It’s something we don’t talk about often, but you don’t get credit for unpopular decisions,” the former World number one said.
“Frances is not in the semi-finals of the US Open if he plays the Olympics, I’m just telling you right now. We need to go, that was the right decision, we don’t like doing it, we get mad whenever anyone skips the Olympics.
“But we were talking about it and listen, he makes the semi-finals at Washington, grinds out some matches, gets weeks where he’s winning matches consecutively and then gets to Cinci, has that breakout event. And I said to Frances, we both said the phrase at the same time, everything just slows down. The decisions become clear.’”
When is Francis Tiafoe’s next tournament?
Tiafoe is set to compete in his second tournament of the Asia swing when he competes at the Shanghai Masters.
He flew straight from the Laver Cup in Germany along with American compatriots Ben Shelton and Taylor Fritz to compete in the Tokyo Open, but lost in the first round.
Now Tiafoe is in China where he will bid to win the fourth title of his career and a first in the continent of Asia.
He will commence his campaign in Shanghai against home favourite Zhou Yi in what will be their first meeting.
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