E. Doctor Smith

Frances Tiafoe: “I’m the son of immigrant parents from Sierra Leone. When I was a kid, my dad got a construction job at College Park Tennis Club in 1999, a new tennis academy in the D.C. area. While my dad worked, I picked up the game during nights and weekends at the facility when the other kids weren’t around. I’d hit against the wall by myself, mimicking techniques I had seen older boys at the academy do. I’d imagine I was playing against Rafa or Roger in the U.S. Open, that those guys were just on the other side of the wall.⁠ ⁠ Eventually, I was accepted into the academy, and the rest is history....⁠ ⁠ I like to tell everybody that I didn’t choose tennis, tennis chose me — that I was built to play this sport — but that didn’t make it any easier for me. When I told people that I wanted to grow up to be a tennis player, they laughed at me.⁠ ⁠ My dad has always been supportive, but he was laughing, too. (‘If you want to do it, then do it!’ he’d tell me). My mom actively did not want me to play professionally. She and I fought about the decision for years, even after I turned pro and started making a little money — all she wanted for me and Franklin was for us to go to college, and I had earned my ticket anywhere I wanted to go. She had a hard time wrapping her head around that. On top of all of that, every kid I played with or against had more than me and would never have to worry about money or whether they’d be able to go to college.⁠ ⁠ I realized early that I could either sit there and be sad about my situation.... or use it as a way out. I look at it like this: Your parents are your parents. You came up how you came up. You can’t change that. What I could control though was how hard I worked. I knew I had an ability to help my family and my community in a way that my peers at the academy couldn’t. For me, there was so much more at stake.⁠ ⁠ Tennis was my way out.⁠ ⁠ I know it’s a cliché to say, ‘There isn’t anything you can’t do if you believe,’ but that’s something I subscribe to, even if it’s corny. But the way I see it, it’s all about going out and doing what you believe you can. That’s the hard part.” playerstribu.ne/Frances