Frances Tiafoe: I need to ‘encourage individuals'
Tiafoe is at present ranked seventeenth on the earth. At the time of writing, he is competing within the Shanghai Masters, considered one of two Masters tournaments left on the calendar together with 28 October to three November in Paris, earlier than the season-ending ATP Finals in Turin, Italy.
The American is 14th within the race for the eight-man occasion in Turin. While some may think about him an outsider for what could be his first Finals look, he likes his probabilities.
Not to say being fired up for it.
“Hell yeah! I’ve by no means actually had the possibility to be this shut. I'm 14 within the race and I'm like, why not? You see how issues shake up, see how man's our bodies really feel, one event at a time.
“I’m playing every game and I’m definitely going for it. That would be the icing on the cake. If I made Turin, that would be pretty dope.”
While Tiafoe hopes to be in Turin the week of 10-17 November, he has his sights set far past that.
“I need to be on prime of the sport. I need to win majors, I need to be within the prime three, prime 5 and at that time, why not No. 1?
“But my actual aim is to win a serious. Let the rankings fall the place they might however I need to be on the highest of the sport for some time and be ready the place I'm competing for Slams and Masters Series for the subsequent 5 – 6 years for certain.
“I’m 27 on top of the year. That's kind of my goal but ultimately, to use my success to inspire people to do something special in their life.”
Tiafoe appeared on the Olympic Games Tokyo 2020 however he opted to not play for Team USA at Paris 2024, citing the floor and schedule amongst causes. Skipping the Games has additionally allowed him to remain comparatively contemporary for the stretch run of the 12 months whereas those that went, like Carlos Alcaraz and Novak Djokovic, appeared to hit a wall afterwards.
Tiafoe stands by his choice to cross on Paris however did admit he missed donning the purple, white, and blue alongside America’s Olympic greats like LeBron James, Kevin Durant, and Sha’carri Richardson.
“Like I'm [watching] in Atlanta, I'm seeing them on the boat, bro. You acquired Bron, KD – I imply these are my guys. KD and Steph (Curry) I do know rather well, Bron clearly tweeted at me a few occasions. It would have been cool to hang around with these guys.
“A’ja Wilson, all the runners man – Sha’Carri to Gabby Thomas and everybody. We have so many amazing Olympic athletes. It sucked to not be there, but to see how I ended the summer myself, I think I made the right decision.”
