Frances Tiafoe: I only had mild symptoms and all my tests were good

World No. 82 Frances Tiafoe says he knew it wouldn't be easy against Australian John Millman in their US Open second round clash. 

Tiafoe, a former world No. 29, edged out Millman a five-setter 7-6 (6) 3-6 1-6 6-3 6-3 to reach the US Open third round for the first time in his career.

"Yeah, John's tough, one of the best competitors in our sport, if you ask me. He really puts guys to the brink," Tiafoe said post-match.

"I knew he was going to be tough today. I came up with him great. Somehow lose both my serves in the breaker, and then played a loose, like, couple loose games in the second, played a horrible third set.

"I was, like, kind of ended up working for me better because I saved the energy because I was kind of tapped out a little bit. Then I gave my all in two sets. I told my coach I'm going to go dumb for two sets. That's what happened."

Tiafoe happy his coronavirus experience wasn't that bad 

In early-July, at the Atlanta exhibition, American tennis star Tiafoe tested positive for the coronavirus.

Fortunately, Tiafoe had only mild symptoms and the coronavirus left no consequences on his health. 

"Yeah, yeah, yeah. I'm cool. Obviously, you know, some of the other players had it pretty bad. Losing taste, losing smell. Physically when they were coming back they were struggling a lot," Tiafoe said.

"Actually my virus was pretty mild, thankfully, me and my brother. My brother had no symptoms at all. I just had diarrhea and headaches for three days. So I was okay. During those three days I would be like make conversation and I'd fall asleep, like randomly. I was getting real tired out of nowhere.

"When I got back, when I started practicing, got my EKG test done, docs and everybody told me I was cool. They said my heart is normal where it should be.

"I feel perfectly fine. I was ready to go. I had about three-and-a-half weeks, close to a month to get ready for this. It was almost kind of better that Citi Open canceled in the end, because I would have played but I don't think I would have been in tip-top shape for it.

"Yeah, I'm here and I'm in third round. I'm feeling good."

Tiafoe plays next against Marton Fucsovics, who beat Grigor Dimitrov to advance to the third round.

Speaking of Fucsovics, Tiafoe said the Hungarian is "one of the most underrated players on the Tour."

from Tennis World USA https://ift.tt/324Tj7j