Last Updated on August 28, 2022
Frances Tiafoe is an African American professional tennis player who recently broke into the World Top 30 ATP Men’s Singles ranking. The 24-year-old tennis star was born on the 20th of January, 1998, in Maryland, US, to the family of Sierra Leonean immigrants Constant Tiafoe and Alpina Kamara.
Frances started playing tennis alongside his twin brother, Franklin (4), at the Junior Tennis Champions Centre (JTCC) College Park in Maryland, where their father resided and was the head of maintenance.
He eventually started focusing on the game at age five when Coach Misha Kouznetsov took a personal interest in him after noticing his skills and dedication. Kouznetsov was responsible for training and sponsoring him through the Juniors until he proceeded to Boca Raton in Florida to continue his training at the USTA National Training Centre. Frances later turned pro the same year (2015).
When the player left for the USTA, he had already made a name for himself during his junior career. And this was when Frances achieved a record at the Orange Bowl to become the youngest player to win the tournament in 2013, just a month before the tennis player clocked 16.
He has achieved a career highest ranking of 24th and currently upholds the position with one career ATP title.
Who is Frances Tiafoe Current Coach?
Wayne Ferreira
The current coach of Frances Tiafoe is Wayne Ferreira. Ferreira started his relationship with Frances as a second coach before taking over during the 2020 tennis season.
Ferreira was also an ex-American tennis player and was phenomenal as a player, recording 26 career titles, 15 Singles titles, and 11 Doubles titles. The once World Number 6 retired in 2005 to begin his coaching career and has worked with Croatian Marian Cilic for some time and served as the captain of the South African Davis Cup team he represented during his time.
Speaking on his relationship with Frances during an interview, Ferreira was quoted as follows: “It’s great because he’s such a nice guy. We have such a nice time together. He has so many improvements to make and so much that he can do. It’s a cool project because he can be so much better, and he wants to do it. It’s nice that he’s open to learning and doing his best. There are a lot of changes we have to make, and it’s a lot of fun spending time with him, being with him, and seeing everything go in the right direction”.
He has impacted Frances, even though their partnership has not produced a title yet. Notably, he joined Frances when he was the World Number 87and now, guiding him to the number 24 in the world (highest ranking so far in his career). Also, seeing him through into the top 200 in the Doubles category is a great achievement.
Previous Coaches of Frances Tiafoe
Misha Kuznetstov
Kuznetstov was the one who recognized Frances’s talent at the tender (8) and trained him for the next nine years to become a pro.
Kuznetsov was a former college tennis player who represented UMBC as a collegian and has also worked as a coach at Robert Maris Private University. He quit his job at the JTCC during that time to dedicate more time to the development of Tiafoe and worked as his full-time coach.
Nine years later, when Tiafoe was 17 and became a professional, he had to move on to Florida to train with the USTA; thus, their relationship ended.
Nevertheless, it will remain a remarkable experience for both of them as Tiafoe won several Junior titles and reached the World number 2 Junior ranking under the watch of Kuznetsov.
Jose Higueras
When Tiafoe arrived at the USTA, Jose Higueras became his next coach alongside Nicolas Todero. Jose was an ex-Spanish professional tennis player who played between 1973 and 1986, while Nicolas was an ex-Argentine professional player who became a pro in 1998 and retired in 2009.
Jose was quite successful as a player and recorded 16 Singles career titles and 3 Doubles titles, while Nicolas did not win any professional career title during his reign as a player. Both have had great successes as a coach, with Nicolas now serving as the National Coach of the USTA.
Jose has worked with several top tennis players and had great achievements with his trainees; these include the likes of Micheal Chang, who won the 1989 French Open title with him, and Jim Courier; who attained the World Number 1 in 1992 and also won 4 titles (including a Grand Slam) with him.
He has also worked with current top players such as Roger Federer, Carlos Moya, Pete Sampras, Dmitry Tursunov, Todd Martin, and so on. Currently, Jose serves as the Director of Coaching for elite development at the USTA, where he once coached Tiafoe before his career development.
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Robby Ginepri
Robert Ginepri, popularly known as Robby, was an ex-American tennis player, although he did not record much momentum.
Nonetheless, he reached a career highest ranking of 15th n in 2005 and recorded 3 Singles titles throughout his career.
Robby spent about two years with Tiafoe before the player moved on to begin his training under his friend, Zack Evenden. There are not so many details about their relationship, and they did not win any titles during their time together.
Zack Evenden
Zack was a long-time friend of Tiafoe and joined Robby in training him in 2018, just some months before he won his first and only ATP title. At the dawn of the 2019 season, Jack became the full-time coach of Tiafoe.
The two of them spent a year together before they parted ways based on mutual agreements in 2020 to let Ferreira take over as the full-time coach of Tiafoe.
Frances Tiafoe’s achievements with different coaches
We have collected in the table the data about the trophies won by Frances Tiafoe under the guidance of various coaches.
Coaches | Years of Completion | Titles |
Misha Kuznetsov | 2006-2015 | 2013 Orange Bowl 2013 Easter Bowl |
Jose Higueras | 2015- 2016 | – |
Robby Ginepri | 2016- 2018 | – |
Zack Evenden | 2018-2020 | Delray Beach Open, United States |
Wayne Ferreira | 2020- till date | – |