Tiafoe notches 1st big upset at Aussie Open

MELBOURNE — No sooner had Frances Tiafoe nailed down the most significant upset of this Australian Open to date with a 4-6, 6-4, 6-4, 7-5 second-round win over No. 5 seed Kevin Anderson, he was celebrating.

He started screaming “C’mon,” and then took his fist from his left hand and started to pound on the muscle on his right arm in a display meant to accentuate just how strong he is.

The only issue that resulted from the Maryland native’s jubilant display Wednesday was that his necklace tangled into the button of his polo shirt. As it turned out a ball boy, clearly possessing excellent dexterity, skillfully released the necklace.

“It means the world to me,” Tiafoe told the crowd of beating the betterknown South African. “I lost to Kevin three times last year. I was down a setand-a-break today and it looks like he was getting the fourth.

“I just went to a different place. I dug deep. It’s just how bad you want it and I wanted it bad.”

The second-round victory ended the 39th-ranked Tiafoe’s six-match losing streak against top-10 opponents. The last time he pushed past a top-10 player was when he defeated 10th-ranked Juan Martin del Potro en route to his first career ATP title at the 2018 Delray Beach tournament last February. The win over del Potro was particularly poignant as the Argentine was Tiafoe’s childhood idol.

Anderson helped Tiafoe to secure the match when he double-faulted on a second break point in the 11th game of the fourth set. In the next game, Tiafoe managed to recover from facing two break points on his serve in the final game to claim the match with a winning volley.

Tiafoe is the son of immigrants from Sierra Leone who moved to the United States to give Frances, and his twin brother, Franklin, more opportunity in life.

His father started working on the construction of the Junior Tennis Champions Center in College Park, Maryland, and stayed on to be the caretaker of the facility, which led to Frances’ introduction to the sport.