Tiafoe gunning for ATP Finals after US Open run

Frances Tiafoe has set his sights on qualifying for the ATP Finals for the first time in his career, trying to capitalise on his strong North American hard-court swing.

From Wimbledon through to the end of the US Open, Tiafoe went 14-5, making the final of the Cincinnati Masters and the semi-finals of the US Open, as well as the semi-finals in Washington and quarter-finals in Atlanta.

This hot run saw Tiafoe add 1,710 points to his tally, rocketing the 26-year-old up to 14th place in the Race to Turin.

Tiafoe now sits on 2,460 points for the year, just 845 points short of Alex de Minaur in eighth spot. Given that De Minaur has been struggling with injury and that ninth-ranked Novak Djokovic says he is not interested in playing in Turin this year – Tiafoe has a real shot of making his maiden appearance at the prestigious event, for the top eight players of the calendar year.

Humbert takes his place at UTS Frankfurt

There are still plenty of opportunities to gain points before the year-end finals in mid-November

As a result, the American has opted to withdraw from UTS Frankfurt on October 18th to 20th, choosing instead to play an ATP 250 that week in an attempt to gain more points.

“I want to apologise to the UTS fans in Frankfurt!” said Tiafoe in a statement about his UTS withdrawal.

“After the US Open run I am now in the race for Turin and my team and I have made the very difficult decision of having to withdraw from UTS Frankfurt so I can play an ATP event that week and keep my hopes alive of getting enough points to qualify for the ATP Finals.”

Ugo Humbert will replace Tiafoe in the UTS Frankfurt lineup, with the Frenchman looking to maintain his unbeaten record in the format after defeating Andrey Rublev at UTS New York last month.

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