Frances Tiafoe Aims To Entertain, Bringing Basketball Culture To Tennis

Frances Tiafoe has a career high world ranking (World No. 14 for those keeping score at home), and he’s rising the ranks thanks to his be-myself attitude that aims to have fun on the tennis court and invite the crowd into the event.

“I am always going to be out there competing hard with a smile on my face,” he tells me, “bringing the crowd into it and making them feel a part of this crazy journey we call life. I think they are really enjoying that. I’m not putting that on for people, that is who I am. I love people being happy.”

The happy resonates with fans, with Tiafoe’s game and his ability to land new sponsorship deals.

The Tiafoe story is well-known in tennis. Frances and his brother grew up in Maryland, sons of Sierra Leone immigrants, living at the Junior Tennis Champions Center in College Park because his dad landed a job as a caretaker of the facility after working on its construction. Tiafoe started playing tennis at age 4, entered the center’s training program at age 5 and had a coach at age 8. He eventually moved to the USTA National Training Center in Florida and turned professional in 2015.

But professional tennis has a distinct feel of professional basketball for the 25-year-old. He’s made his love of basketball well known, often donning basketball jerseys for practices, attending NBA games and even participating in this year’s NBA All-Star Celebrity Game in Salt Lake City. He hopes he can bring a bit of basketball culture to tennis, knowing it starts with the fans.

“I think fans should be able to come and go and move around and speak during matches,” he says. “Imagine going to a basketball game and not saying anything.” He concedes certain events should retain some of the tradition, such as Wimbledon, but “outside that, let’s start to change things to bring younger fans to the game.”

With Tiafoe’s focus on the crowds comes interaction, his basketball-styled celebrations and his own desire to get energized. “I am getting pumped up and I want the crowd [to get pumped up],” he says. “They spent hard-earned money to watch entertainment. I’m just doing me, just being me. I’m going to do me and do what helps me play my best.”

Where we see this intersection of tennis and basketball cultures most may be in New York City. Tiafoe says his favorite court to play on is Arthur Ashe Stadium, the main court at the U.S. Open. “There is nothing like Arthur Ashe at night,” he says. “Arthur Ashe period, but Arthur Ashe at night. New York at night, everyone’s drunk and the atmosphere, it is crazy.”

Another point of connection with the fans has been Tiafoe’s on-court kit. In Australia, he embraced Nike’s loudest combination, giving fans plenty to digest when he was on the court. And he’s championed women’s sports in his attire, wearing WNBA jerseys during practice, donning the Nike Air Deldon signature shoe for WNBA star Elena Delle Donne at the All-Star celebrity event and even wearing Nike’s Air Zoom GP Turbo shoe on court in Naomi Osaka colorways.

The connection with women’s sports is natural for him. He says it should be important to everybody and wants to see women “treated as equals in every capacity.”

While he enjoys being able to support Osaka by wearing her colorways of the GP Turbo, it was a sneaker he wore first. Nike has since stopped producing the silhouette widely and has recently offered only limited Osaka-inspired options. Maybe one day they’ll make sneakers in Tiafoe-specific designs.

“I would rather be wearing my own shoe, but we are not quite there,” he says. A dream to work more closely with Nike on specific sneakers, Tiafoe says his colorways—if they ever happen—would have basketball influence and colorways tied to his favorite players of the past.

This love of sport and embracing of the fans has led to companies embracing Tiafoe too. He recently served as one of the faces of a new Beats campaign and announced a deal with beer brand Stella Artois. He already has deals in place with Nike, Yonex, Barclays, Zip Recruiter and Tag Huer. He has additional endorsement deal announcements on the way.

Working alongside his IMG team on the business side, Tiafoe says he’s taking an interest in the new agreements. “I don’t want to only be making money playing tennis,” he says.

The on-court success has meant more responsibility off the court, something he’s learning to handle. “My time management is pretty poor,” he admits. “I am going to have to enhance to juggle the two [tennis and business]. It is part of growing. It is a good problem to have. When all these great brands want to work with you, you’ve got to manage that better and learn as you go. I am honored and blessed.”