After his French Open loss, what's next for Frances Tiafoe? - ESPN

PARIS — It will take some time for Frances Tiafoe to process what happened to him at the French Open on Monday night, to deal with the physical pain of almost 5½ hours on court and the mental anguish of letting slip a two sets to one and 4-1 lead before losing to Matteo Arnaldi of Italy.

The disappointment of being so close to reaching back-to-back Roland-Garros quarterfinals will doubtless linger. Usually one of the most comfortable players with the media, Tiafoe did not do the customary postmatch news conference after the Arnaldi match, which finished at nearly 1 a.m. But when the pain begins to subside, he will surely realize just how far he has come in the past year.

«I hate it for Frances,» Andy Roddick, the last American man to win a Slam title, in 2003, said on his «Served» podcast. «He probably won't be able to hear anything positive from this for a while. It hopefully has a limited hangover. [But I would tell him], you didn't have this physicality in your body a year ago. You were prepared for the opportunity physically.»

A prodigious talent, Tiafoe was tipped for the top from a young age and has twice made the semifinals at the US Open. But despite his achievements, there has also been criticism that he has relied on his talent too much, that he was not willing to give absolutely everything to fulfill his potential.

It was late in 2025, not long after an early loss at the US Open, that those closest to Tiafoe shared with him some home truths. If he didn't change, they said, he would never achieve his dreams. Chastened, he took a leap and hired Mark Kovacs, a performance physiologist and biomechanics specialist. Kovacs, who has known Tiafoe since he was working at the USTA when Tiafoe was 12, set about