Frances Tiafoe’s epic US Open ride comes after incredible journey

Tiafoe’s parents each fled from Sierra Leone separately during the African nation’s civil war in the early 1990s and settled in Maryland, where they met

JOURNEY: Frances Tiafoe, of the United States, reacts in his match against Rafael Nadal, of Spain, during the fourth round of the US Open in New York. Pic: AP Photo/Julia Nikhinson

No sooner had Frances Tiafoe walked off the court after completing the biggest win of his career to reach the US Open quarter-finals than he looked up at his player box where his parents, Frances Sr and Alphina Kamara, beamed down with pride amid deafening roars from the Arthur Ashe Stadium crowd.

“To see them experience me beat Rafa Nadal?” recalled Tiafoe, a 24-year-old from Hyattsville, Maryland, who is seeded 22nd at Flushing Meadows. “They’ve seen me have big wins, but to beat those Mount Rushmore guys, for them, I can’t imagine what was going through their heads. They’re going to remember today for the rest of their lives.”