Frances Tiafoe: I was in dark place pre-pandemic

American tennis player Frances Tiafoe revealed that he was in a dark place pre-pandemic but now he is good and hoping to have a good 2021 season. 

Tiafoe, ranked at No. 62 in the world, started the 2020 season with three consecutive first round exits and his first win of the season came at the Newport Beach Challenger in late-January. 

Before the season was suspended, Tiafoe‘s best result came at the Delray Beach Open, where he made the quarterfinal before losing to Ugo Humbert.

"The pandemic was probably the best thing that happened to me in my career, if we are going to be frank. I was in a dark place pre-pandemic,” Tiafoe told the ATP website. “My ranking took a serious hit, obviously losing the quarter-finals [points] in Melbourne. It kind of saved me, because I had Miami coming up where I was defending quarter-finals [points]."

Tiafoe embraced change

“I looked at the guy in the mirror [and asked], ‘Why are you here? What are the things you need to change and what are the things you need to keep building on?’ It helped me a lot. There were a lot of deep conversations with my guys and I wouldn’t have made it to the second week of the US Open without that," Tiafoe acknowledged.

Tiafoe, who turned professional in 2015, won his maiden ATP title at the Delray Beach Open in 2018 and achieved a career-high ranking of No. 19 in 2019.

When you first come on Tour, you are Bugs Bunny [and] just excited to be out there,” said Tiafoe. “You want to play everybody, you want to go to all the tournaments. I am young, but I feel like a veteran. I have been playing on Tour for a while, I am going on 23 now and now I know everybody. I have definitely changed a lot, it doesn’t maybe seem that way but I have definitely changed a lot.”

from Tennis World USA https://ift.tt/394qz1J