By Chris Oddo | @TheFanChild | Sunday March 27, 2022
Frances Tiafoe and his American peers are eager to take advantage of the power vacuum at the top of the ATP rankings.
Photo Source: Getty
A painfully short offseason, an elbow problem and some trouble with the achilles. The start of the 2022 season was a recipe for disaster for Frances Tiafoe, but now that the 24-year-old American has climbed out from under the injury cloud that followed him to Australia, he is eager to take advantage of the tremendous opportunities that currently exist on the ATP Tour.
With the Big 3 off the court in Miami, Tiafoe believes that the time is ripe to make a splash.
The World No.31 took a step in that direction on Sunday, topping Argentina’s Juan Manuel Cerundolo, 6-3, 6-2 to reach the round of 16.
“Finally there is a little opening in tennis,” Tiafoe said of the current state of the ATP Tour. “The big guys don't play every Masters, for example, this one. Big guys, you know what I mean, the big three. So there is a little space for guys. I mean, there was a while there where you go deep in an event, and you run into Rafa and them, I was, like, ‘Yeah, I'm probably going home.’
“But now guys can win it.”
Tiafoe missed a month and a half to get his right elbow right, making his return at Indian Wells last week, where he lost to Andrey Rublev in the third round. This week in Miami, he’s already progressed further. He hasn’t stormed up the rankings lately, but Tiafoe has blossomed in his own way on tour over the last year.
Tiafoe won just three of his first 24 matches against the ATP’s top-10 and by March of 2021 many believed he might never figure it out. Since Wimbledon of last year, however, the American has won four of seven against the top-10.
“It wasn’t a question of can I beat these guys?” Tiafoe said last year in Vienna. “It was: can I do it day in and day out? I’ve made changes, I’ve sacrificed things. I’m growing up.”
Poised just two spots high of his career-high ranking of 29, his clean bill of health could mark the beginning of another rise. Having watched Taylor Fritz claim the Indian Wells title and climb to No.13, Tiafoe knows that he can get there too.
The American men, with eight players 24 or younger inside the Top-100, are inspiring each other - it’s a rising tide that could lift all rankings.
“I think seeing guys that you grew up with doing well, you're like, Well, f***, this guy can do it. Sh**, I grew up with him. I've beaten him how many times. Why not?”