Frances Tiafoe invites Hailey Baptiste & Robin Montgomery to his player box for Wimbledon 3R clash against Carlos Alcaraz
Frances Tiafoe had some special guests in his box during his third-round clash against reigning champion Carlos Alcaraz at the 2024 Wimbledon Championships.
This was the pair's first encounter since their five-set epic in the semifinals of the 2022 US Open. The Spaniard reigned supreme in that encounter and went on to pick up his first Grand Slam title, seeing off Casper Ruud in the final.
Tiafoe and Alcaraz have gone up against each other just twice so far on tour and split their head-to-head evenly with one win apiece.
Rooting him on in his latest encounter against Alcaraz, Tiafoe's box didn't disappoint. Aside from the likes of his coaches and girlfriend, Ayan Broomfield, he also had fellow tennis players Hailey Baptiste and Robin Montgomery in attendance.
The 22-year-old Baptiste has featured on the WTA tour since 2019. She made her debut at the 2019 Washington Open and shocked compatriot Madison Keys in the first round. She made her Grand Slam debut at the US Open later that year. She is currently ranked 99 in the women's rankings and has a 27-17 match record this season.
Baptiste and Tiafoe's friendship dates back to when they were children. The pair trained together at the Junior Tennis Champions Center and have been close-knit ever since.
Tiafoe predicted big things for Baptiste when she was a 17-year-old, telling everybody to watch out.
He was also seen rooting her on at the 2021 BNP Paribas Open in Indian Wells.
Montgomery, meanwhile, turned pro in 2020. She played her first Grand Slam main draw match at the 2020 US Open as a wildcard, going down to Yulia Putinseva in the opening round.
Montogomery is currently ranked 166 in the women's ranking and is 27-13 for the season. She's had a breakthrough season this year, having reached her first first WTA quarterfinal at the Libema Open.
Montgomery and Tiafoe have also known each other since their junior days at JTCC in College Park, Maryland. She's conceded before that his success has inspired her to do better.
"It inspires me a lot. I'm just really happy to see him being successful and also doing it his way, showing people that you can have fun with the sport, you can smile and get the crowd involved and things like that. So it's not so black and white. So I'm very proud of him," Montogomery said.
Robin Montgomery and Hailey Baptiste have contrasting outings at Wimbledon
Robin Montgomery turned heads with her outstanding performances at the 2024 Wimbledon Championships that saw her reach the second round. She plowed through the qualifiers with emphatic three-set wins over Vitalia Diatchenko and tenth seed Kamilla Rakhimova in the first two rounds. Her final round against Valentina Ryser was much more straight forward, as she went on to seal a 7-6 (3), 6-2 win.
Montgomery pieced together another brilliant performance against Olivia Gadecki in the opening round, sealing a 6-4, 6-4 win. Her incredible run was brought to a halt by Ons Jabeur in the second round.
Hailey Baptiste in contrast failed to make it through the qualifiers. Seeded fourth, she went down to compatriot Amanda Anisimova in the second round despite winning the first set.
She's still alive and kicking in the doubles alongside friend and compatriot Alycia Parks. They dismissed Wu Fang-hsien and Makoto Ninomiya in the first round in straight sets 6-3, 6-2.