Frances Tiafoe becomes first African American to enter ATP top 10 in over 14 years
Frances Tiafoe's title run at the 2023 Boss Open in Stuttgart helped the American break into the top 10 in the ATP rankings for the first time.
Coming into the tournament as the World No. 12, Tiafoe downed Jiri Lehecka, Lorenzo Musetti, Marton Fucsovics and Jan-Lennard Struff to win his maiden title on grass as well as his second title of the season. As a result, he rose two spots in the world rankings to reach the No. 10 spot.
The last time there was an African American man in the ATP top 10 was all the way back in 2009, when James Blake was World No. 10. A former World No. 4, Blake left the top 10 after the last week of January, making it more than 5,200 days (14 and one-thirds of a year) since there was another black man in the top ten.
Tiafoe reacted to the stat on social media, tweeting:
"Sheesh."
🏾
Sheesh twitter.com/gstntoday/stat…
the last African American man ranked inside the top 10 was James Blake (week of 01/26/2009). Blake reached a career high of #4 in 2006 https://t.co/Ltb8tD8gEQ
Frances Tiafoe joins fellow American Taylor Fritz in ATP top 10
With Frances Tiafoe now the World No. 10, there are two American men in the top 10 for the first time in 11 years. Ahead of Tiafoe is Taylor Fritz, who occupies the No. 8 spot in the ATP rankings.
Fritz and Tiafoe are in action next at the Queen's Club Championships as the third and fourth seeds respectively. While Fritz opens his campaign against Bernabe Zapata Miralles, Tiafoe will take on Botic van de Zandschulp in his first match.
Frances Tiafoe and Taylor Fritz are in opposite halves of the draw, so they can only face each other in the final. A potential quarterfinal clash with fifth seed Cameron Norrie awaits Fritz, followed by a blockbuster semifinal against top seed Carlos Alcaraz.
Meanwhile, Tiafoe could face seventh seed Alex de Minaur in the quarterfinals and second seed Holger Rune in the semifinals. Fritz was in action at Queen's last year as the fourth seed, falling in the first round to Jack Draper.
Frances Tiafoe competed at the 2022 Queen's Club Championships as an unseeded player and suffered a thrilling three-set loss to Stan Wawrinka in the opening round.
Fritz, meanwhile, is scheduled to play in Eastbourne the week before Wimbledon, while Tiafoe will play at SW19. The former reached the quarterfinals of the grasscourt Major last year but fell in the fourth round.