Frances Tiafoe, Eugenie Bouchard and tennis world react to NBA legend Dwyane Wade trying his hand at tennis
Frances Tiafoe, Eugenie Bouchard, Jessica Pegula and other stars of the tennis world were left pleasantly surprised after seeing basketball legend Dwyane Wade try his hand at tennis. The three-time NBA champion was seen taking some tennis lessons and some of the big names in the tennis world could not contain their excitement at the same.
Wade, who retired from basketball in 2019, is regarded as one of the all-time greats and is also an Olympic gold medallist for the USA, to go along with his many NBA achievements. In a video that surfaced on social media on Tuesday, the former Miami Heat star was seen hitting a few forehands and backhands during an intense training season.
Reacting to the video posted by the Tennis Channel, Tiafoe, who is known to be a huge basketball fan, was thrilled to see Wade playing tennis.
"Hell yeah @dwyanewade," Frances Tiafoe wrote on his Instagram Stories.
Pegula and Bouchard also reacted to the same and the latter seemed quite amused to see Wade trying to play tennis.
Upon seeing the video, tennis legend Martina Navratilova jokingly quipped that Wade was playing with an unnecessarily open stance.
"Great to see- too much of an open stance though for no reason at all," Navratilova expressed on Twitter.
@TennisChannel @NBA @DwyaneWade Great to see- too much of an open stance though for no reason at all…🤷🏼♀️🤷🏼♀️🤷🏼♀️
Taylor Townsend and Prakash Amritraj also expressed their excitement upon seeing Wade take tennis lessons and Townsend even offered to help the 40-year-old improve his technique.
"@dwyanewade come on over here and let me show you to play forreal!" Townsend wrote on Instagram.
"@dwyanewade come onnnnn brother!!!" Amritraj expressed.
When Frances Tiafoe met Dwyane Wade in the Miami Heat locker room
Frances Tiafoe's love for basketball knows no bounds. He is often seen in the stands at NBA games when spending some time away from tennis and many basketball stars have also returned the favor by supporting him from the stands at the US Open.
The 24-year-old once met Dwyane Wade himself in the Miami Heat locker room and spoke about his "unbelievable" experience.
"I saw Dwyane Wade in the locker room of the Miami Heat (in December). We had a connect there... I took a selfie with him, I was with my girlfriend. It was unbelievable," Tiafoe said in an interview with the ATP in 2016.
Tiafoe also received a special message of appreciation from all-time basketball great LeBron James after his win over Rafael Nadal in the fourth round of the 2022 US Open.
The American world no. 19 will begin his 2023 campaign at the United Cup, with a match against Tomas Machac on Friday.