Extra special birthday for Tiafoe
Win sets up tilt with Nadal in quarters at Australian Open
MELBOURNE, AUSTRALIA Frances Tiafoe just kept shaking his head and calling the whole thing “crazy” and “unbelievable.”
Which it all kind of is.
That he reached his first Grand Slam quarter-final on his 21st birthday by beating No. 20 seed Grigor Dimitrov 7-5, 7-6 (6), 6-7 (1), 7-5 at the Australian Open on Sunday.
That he did it with the hydrating help of pickle juice guzzled during changeovers to fend off cramps.
That his shirt-removing, biceps-slapping victory poses paying homage to Lebron James have gone viral and might have caught the NBA superstar’s attention.
And, most poignantly of all, that Tiafoe is delivering on the promise he made as a kid to his mother and father — immigrants from Sierra Leone in West Africa — that one day he’d be a success.
“I told my parents 10 years ago I was going to be a pro. I was going to change their life. My life,” Tiafoe said.
“And I’m in the quarters of a Slam now . ... I can’t believe it.”
He grabbed plenty of attention before Roger Federer’s bid for a third consecutive title at Melbourne Park ended with a 6-7 (11), 7-6 (3), 7-5, 7-6 (5) loss to 20-yearold Stefanos Tsitsipas of Greece.
Meanwhile, with a quarter-final berth at stake, Milos Raonic, the lone Canadian left in singles, was scheduled to play Germany’s Alexander Zverev on Monday.
Tiafoe grew up around a tennis facility in Maryland where his father, whom he calls “Pops,” was a maintenance man. That background taught Tiafoe valuable lessons.
“Look, I’m not saying you can’t make it if you grew up from a wealthy situation. I mean, a ton of people have. But obviously that gave me an incentive, a reason to give, a reason to work every day, understand why you do it,” he said.
“Obviously, it’s how bad do you really want to be successful, essentially. Like, what does that really mean to you? Why are you doing it?”
The 39th-ranked Tiafoe had never been past the third round at a major.
And what a challenge awaits Tuesday: His quarter-final match will be against 17-time major champion Rafael Nadal.
The second-seeded Nadal had little trouble moving on, beating Tomas Berdych 6-0, 6-1, 7-6 (4) in a rematch of the 2010 Wimbledon final.
On the other half of the men’s bracket, 2018 Australian Open runner-up Marin Cilic was ousted by 22nd-seeded Roberto Bautista Agut 6-7 (6), 6-3, 6-2, 4-6, 6-4.
In women’s action, Angelique Kerber, who won the title at Melbourne Park in 2016, was completely outplayed by unseeded Danielle Collins of the U.S. in a surprisingly lopsided 6-0, 6-2 upset, while 2008 champ Maria Sharapova double-faulted 10 times in a 4-6, 6-1, 6-4 loss to No. 15 Ash Barty of Australia.
Barty meets two-time Wimbledon winner Petra Kvitova, a 6-2, 6-1 winner against 17-year-old Amanda Anisimova of the U.S.
Collins’ next opponent will be unseeded Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova, who got past 2017 U.S. Open champion Sloane Stephens 6-7 (3), 6-3, 6-3.