COLLEGE PARK — Frances Tiafoe returned dwelling Thursday to the place that helped increase him with a promise to pay it ahead for the subsequent era.
The No. 10 participant on the earth introduced the creation of his personal basis, The Frances Tiafoe Fund, in entrance of almost 100 youth gamers on the Junior Tennis Champions Center. The fund will present tennis assets and programming to under-resourced youth throughout the nation by way of the National Junior Tennis and Learning community, initially established by tennis legend and Virginia native Arthur Ashe in 1969.
“I’m so excited for this opportunity to work with the USTA Foundation and inspire kids who come from my hometown and beyond,” Tiafoe mentioned. “One of my priorities has always been to show kids that dreams can come true and that success is in everyone — and this fund is just one step further toward that goal.”
The fund kicked off with a mixed $250,000 in donations — $150,000 from the USTA and $100,000 from one in every of Tiafoe’s sponsors, power bar firm Clif.
“I’ve been thinking about creating a foundation for a very long time now … I think the biggest thing I want to tell all the young people who look up to me is it’s about the person you are first and the athlete second,” the Hyattsville-born Tiafoe mentioned. “You want to be remembered for who you are and not what you’ve done.”
Tiafoe, who’s received two ATP titles in a profession 12 months for him, additionally hit round and gave tricks to these kids in attendance on the identical JTCC courts that had been the inspiration for his success. His father, Constant, helped construct the College Park facility and served as its head of upkeep after fleeing civil warfare in his dwelling nation of Sierra Leone in 1996.
“I’m very, very proud,” Constant mentioned. “This is how [Frances and his younger brother, Franklin] have been raised. When we got here, we came with nothing. So if we live here, and we have something now, we have to use the platform.”
“If we can generate some for them to have all this stuff that’s happening here, it can’t get any better than that.”
The announcement and homecoming come simply days earlier than the beginning of Tiafoe’s dwelling event, the Mubadala Citi DC Open, which begins Monday in Rock Creek Park. He misplaced final 12 months in an exciting three-set quarterfinal match to eventual champion Nick Kyrgios.
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