#4 Humble beginnings
Tiafoe’s parents, both immigrants from Sierra Leone, met in Maryland and later had Tiafoe and his twin, Franklin, in Maryland, where the family still reside.
Father Constant Tiafoe was a daily wage earner in College Park, where he was part of a crew that built the Junior Tennis Centre. He would later go on to be hired as the custodian. Through this, Tiafoe pushed through the ITF rankings before he went pro.
As a child, Tiafoe and his twin brother often slept on a massage table at the tennis centre, while their father worked maintenance. Francis Tiafoe Sr, who previously went by the name Constant Zubairu, worked maintenance by day and tended the clay courts by night to make ends meet.
The twins moved with him into a small room in the centre while their mother worked through the night as a nurse. Although the family did not have much money to spare, Frances Tiafoe laboured on the courts all day to get to the level he is at now, and with support will only get better.
