How a smashed racquet led Tiafoe to the French Open round of 16
The American says he “actually having fun again” in Paris this week
Chryslene Caillaud / Psnewz
Frances Tiafoe is playing the best clay-court tennis of his life at the 2025 French Open, and it’s all because of a smashed racquet last week.
Heading into Roland-Garros, Tiafoe was 4-5 on European clay this season, with all five losses coming to players outside the world’s top 20. His career record at the French Open made for even grimmer reading: six wins and 10 losses, his best win against world No 52 Benjamin Bonzi and six of his losses coming in the first round.
So when Tiafoe dispatched No 23 seed Sebastian Korda for a third-consecutive straight-set win in Paris on Friday, it’s safe to say he turned a few heads.
Not only is he through to his eighth major fourth-round, but the American has a prime chance to make just his second Grand Slam quarter-final outside of the US, with world No 66 Daniel Altmaier waiting in the round-of-16.
This begs the question: what changed to transform Tiafoe from an easy-beat on European clay to a favourite to make the quarter-finals at Roland-Garros this weekend?
Tiafoe explains sudden form at Roland-Garros
“I’m actually having fun again,” Tiafoe explained when questioned about his turnaround on Friday.
“To be honest with you, I snapped a racquet on, probably, Friday.
“I played on Sunday, in practice, and I absolutely lost it. Then I played horrendous in a practice set, got absolutely killed. Then played another practice set that same day, right after that, after I broke the racquet and everything.
“That was critical for me. That was huge.
“I have been losing all kinds of matches, and I kind of was nonchalant about it, holding emotions in, not really letting guys know where I am at. I just kinda just lost it.
“That was big for me in terms of having emotion and understanding like being, like, yes this sucks. Like actually facing it rather than just kind of being, ‘Oh, you know, it’s all right. No, it sucks. You have been playing horrendous.’.
“I think that was big for me, because then I finally actually adjusted and understood the why. And now I’m flying. I’m actually having fun again, battling, playing well.
“Sometimes adversity is good. I think a lot of times people look at adversity as a bad thing. I think adversity at that moment was good.”
