“Coming from her, it’s just so loud” – Tiafoe on Serena Williams’ support at the US Open
Williams met with Tiafoe before his fourth round match at the US Open on Sunday
Frances Tiafoe and Serena Williams at the 2019 Hopman Cup
Frances Tiafoe is no stranger to meeting tennis legends and global celebrities. But even the 26-year-old American was surprised after learning that 23-time Grand Slam champion Serena Williams wanted to speak to him before his fourth-round clash at the US Open on Sunday.
Williams, who played her last professional match at the US Open two years ago, was enjoying the action from the stands inside the Arthur Ashe Stadium on Sunday and gave Tiafoe a pep talk prior to his win over Alexei Popyrin, which put him into the quarter-finals at his home Grand Slam for the third year running.
Speaking to the press after his win, Tiafoe expressed just how much Williams’ support meant to him.
“For her wanting to come out and talk to me before the match, telling me she’s always following no matter what, telling me it’s so good to see now that I’m done, you’re the guy of color playing and doing well. Going to come from her, that’s a loud sentence. I’m, like, damn. That’s really, really cool that she sees me as that,” Tiafoe said.
Whatever, our conversation is between us, but it was really cool to have her want to talk to me before a match..
Frances Taifoe on meeting Serena Williams at the US Open
Williams also gave her former Hopman Cup partner some pointers for his match but Tiafoe refused to divulge details about that to the press.
“Her telling me she just wants nothing but the best for me, giving me some game right before the match, how are you feeling, where you at? It’s so funny her asking me that. I’m like nervous to respond. She’s not someone you’re going to bullshit and say, like… She’s not trying to hear that. I was just like — you know, it’s between us. Whatever, our conversation is between us, but it was really cool to have her want to talk to me before a match and really say she wants me to do this thing and that I’m capable of doing it. It coming from her, it’s just so loud. I don’t think it will hit me like that if anybody else said it to me.”
Tiafoe will take on Bulgaria’s Grigor Dimitrov on Tuesday with a semi-final berth on the line. The American has been that far at a Grand Slam only once before; right here at the US Open in 2022 but he refused to be drawn into talks about being one of the favourites for the title with the exits of Novak Djokovic and Carlos Alcaraz.
“I’m not really looking, like, oh, you know, favorites and things like that. I’m just day by day literally. Recovery days and focusing on that. When match day comes, you start focusing on the match. You know, Grand Slams, two weeks, a lot going on. You can’t get ahead of yourself and look at what could happen and things shaking out. Everyone is good, so it doesn’t really matter who’s in or who’s not.”
