Wimbledon 2018: In Frances Tiafoe, Stefanos Tsitsipas and Alex de Minaur lies a sign of tennis' multi-cultural future

It is 2018 and for the times we live in, it is imperative to put this in bold, large font size: the most promising future tennis star from United States of America was born to immigrant parents, who fled the civil war-torn Sierra Leone in 1993, to find a new, safer life. They did, in Maryland where Tiafoe’s father Frances Tiafoe Sr worked as a day labourer building the tennis centre by day and taking care of it in the night. Tiafoe literally grew up around tennis, living in the centre and beginning to hit the balls he found in a bucket, trying to learn by observing the privileged students of the centre. Tiafoe had a stellar junior career and currently he is just outside of top-50 and until Wimbledon this week, he’s been a bit unlucky with the draws in big tournaments. At the Miami Masters in 2017, he had to get past Roger Federer, the eventual champion. In US Open 2017, he was facing Federer again in the first round, and this time he pushed the Australian Open and Wimbledon champion to five intense sets. After a dearth of tennis superstars in the past decade from America, Tiafoe has the makings of one than most. [caption id=“attachment_4681861” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] Frances Tiafoe, Stefanos Tsitsipas and Alex de Minaur at Wimbledon. Agencies [/caption] Frances Tiafoe is not the only one we’ll be hearing more of this Wimbledon fortnight. Two other players have already had their best Slam run so far — Stefanos Tsitsipas and Alex de Minaur. As of today, on the ATP website, the number of matches they have played read 25, 49 and 67. More accurately, the win-loss record for Australian De Minaur — born February 1999 — is 11-14, for Greek Tsitsipas — born August 1998 — is 23-26 and Tiafoe — born January 1998 — is 27-40. The combined playing experience of these players born at the turn of the last century is less than the number of losses faced by Federer in the pro tour, who incidentally turned pro around the time two of these players stepped into this world. As the old guard continues to hang on to the upper echelons of tennis, there are multiple younger generations that have led the ATP into a dark age, with no new champions except for an occasional Juan Martin Del Potro or Marin Cilic. But the generation that these promising players belong to has a swiftness about them, not to mention time on their friendlier side, to develop as consistent world beaters. They’ve had different journeys in the last two years to the place they are in currently but all of them have had their major breakthroughs in Wimbledon this year. Australian or Greek or American will tell you only half the story. We know about Tiafoe. De Minaur is the son of Uruguayan father and Spanish mother; he left Australia when he was five, trained in Spain and returned to Australia in 2012. He chose to represent Australia and during his first main draw appearance at the Australian Open in 2017, he was staying with Lleyton Hewitt and family. Tsitsipas has a Greek father and a Russian mother who used to play junior tennis for the Soviet Union and swears that his mixed heritage has only helped him, exposing him to different cultures, aiding him both as a person and as a tennis player. So far Tsitsipas’s success has come on the clay courts of Barcelona — where he beat Dominic Thiem among other seeds to reach the final — and Estoril. But the man whom the romantically-inclined tennis fans would favour, the one who hits his backhand with a single arm, is putting up a great grass court run for his best Major performance so far. Tsitsipas on Wimbledon Day 4 had to comeback twice, once due to rain and then because Jared Donaldson forced a fifth and went a break up in the decider. Tsitsipas came up with a Boris Becker throwback diving volley serving at 3-3 40-30. The commentator goes “Welcome to the future of men’s tennis. Not bad, is it?” Tsitsipas was too pumped to let it go from there. The future of men’s tennis is alright. Tiafoe has a solid forehand with an almost invisible back swing which makes his decision making unreadable. He can be a real threat on grass and faster courts as this helps him shorten his already compact swings at his will, combined with his serve and return skills. The three of them have already had mentally tricky matches to reach where they are with Tiafoe needing eight sets overall to see off Fernando Verdasco in the first round and Julien Benneteau in the second. Eight sets is what De Minaur too needed to get past Marco Cecchinato, who broke Novak Djokovic’s run in Roland Garros last month, and Pierre-Hugues Herbert. Like his compatriot Hewitt, De Minaur wears his cap backwards that he keeps adjusting almost every time before serving or returning. A modern open stance forehand and with no problems bending for a smooth two-handed backhand, De Minaur possesses a grass hugging attacking game. He found himself in trouble several times throughout the second round, facing break points, a second set tie-break lost at 8-10, and Herbert attacking down the line repeatedly. But he found a way to close that line and close the match for a third round Wimbledon appearance on main draw debut. These boys, not close to 21 yet, have slotted themselves into the top-32 in men’s tennis at a chaotic edition of Wimbledon. Tiafoe and Tsitsipas have winnable third round matches that could see them as the last-16 on Manic Monday, as if this year’s Championships requires one official day of madness. Tiafoe faces another up and comer, 22-yea-old Karen Khachanov. Tsitsipas, who could have played Grigor Dimitrov or Stan Wawrinka, had his draw open up and is waiting for Thomas Fabbiano. Luck can help you in some ways and desert you in other ways as Tsitsipas will be playing for the third day in a row. De Minaur is not so lucky as he will most likely be playing on Centre Court, facing Rafael Nadal. It will be a good test for the 11-time French Open champion and a tougher match for De Minaur. But as a Twitter user pointed out, it is a World Cup year and a 19-year-old from Australia is facing Rafael Nadal at Wimbledon. We know how that ended the previous time.