Frances Tiafoe has enjoyed a sound end to the year 2024 and reached the semi-final at the US Open in August.
There, he was beaten by compatriot Taylor Fritz but it represented a really positive step in the career of the American player.
Tiafoe is always super positive about his tennis and life in general and he’s an extremely likeable player on the tour.
At Wimbledon earlier in the year, he earned a lot of new fans after a five-set classic against Carlos Alcaraz in the third round.
It would appear that Tiafoe is not just popular with the fans but also with fellow players on the professional tour as well.
Chris Eubanks was indebted to the 26-year-old earlier this year and he’s told a comical tale about having to front up to his compatriot.
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Chris Eubanks had to tell Frances Tiafoe something to his face recently
Eubanks was handed the chance to compete at the Olympics when Tiafoe withdrew to prepare properly for the US Open.
The American major is always a popular one with United States stars and Eubanks benefitted from Tiafoe’s decision.
He said on the Served with Andy Roddick podcast: “One thing too, I love that you brought up the Olympics. I benefitted from it. I told Frances to his face, we did an interview with him on ESPN, I said ‘Hey man, thanks for skipping the Olympics,’ he gave me the chance to go.
“But the thing that I think gets missed in that conversation, especially talking about the Americans and those who choose to skip the Olympics, it’s also the Slam that’s coming up that’s our home Slam. It’s the one with the most pressure on.”
Eubanks striving for confidence in 2025
It’s been a pretty rough 2024 for Eubanks when it comes to his tennis and he will be desperate to curtail a poor run of form.
In 2023 he defied the odds to reach the quarter-finals at Wimbledon but he has got no further than round two in any Grand Slam this year.
Eubanks, 28, has the game to do good things but as always with underperforming players in a sport like tennis, there is a mental side to combat.
Confidence is a large part of what tennis players need to have in their locker and right now it would seem that Eubanks has very little.
Getting Tiafoe’s place at the Olympics didn’t see him do much – he lost in another first round and the 2024 campaign won’t live long in the memory.
Seeing the likes of Tiafoe, Fritz and Tommy Paul kick on in recent months can only help Eubanks and hopefully he can roar back to form next year.
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