*20-year-old Frances Tiafoe bagged the biggest win of his career over South Africa’s Kevin Anderson (ranked #6 in the world), 4-6, 6-4, 6-4, 7-5, to reach the 3rd round at the Australian Open.
Tiafoe defeated Anderson in 4 sets in the second round, and became the 4th American male to defeat a top-5 seed at the Australian Open in the last 15 years.
“It means the world to me,” Tiafoe told the crowd of beating the tennis champ. “I lost to Kevin three times last year. I was down a set-and-a-break today and it looks like he was getting the fourth.
“I just went to a different place. I dug deep. It’s just how bad you want it and I wanted it bad.”
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Frances Tiafoe celebrates knocking off 5th seeded Kevin Anderson pic.twitter.com/DHctUidICu
— CJ Fogler (@cjzero) January 16, 2019
Per USA Today:
The second-round victory ended the 39th-ranked Tiafoe’s six-match losing streak against top-10 opponents.
Tiafoe is the son of immigrants from Sierra Leone who moved to the United States to give Frances, and his twin brother, Franklin, more opportunity in life. His father started working on the construction of the Junior Tennis Champions Center in College Park, Maryland, and stayed on to be the caretaker of the facility, which led to Frances’ introduction to the sport.
The victory over Anderson, a 2017 US Open and 2018 Wimbledon finalist, finds Tiafoe equaling his best previous result at a major, which was reaching the Wimbledon third-round last year.
Tiafoe celebrated his defeat over Anderson by pounding on the muscle on his right arm to highlight just how strong he is.
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