"I didn't take a vacation this year," Tiafoe motivated at the dawn of the 2026 season

Frances Tiafoe has learned from a frustrating year. Between disappointments and soul-searching, the American player chose to overhaul everything to rediscover the taste of victory.

© AFP

Adrien Guyot

le 09/12/2025 à 17h16

2 min to read

Roddick Andy Tiafoe Frances

Frances Tiafoe wants to definitively forget the year 2025. Still ranked 11th in the world at the start of the season, the American is now 30th, and he has not shone on the circuit. Apart from a lost final in Houston against Jenson Brooksby and a quarter-final at Roland-Garros, the 27-year-old player has no real reference this season. However, in recent hours, he won an exhibition match against Carlos Alcaraz. He seems to have regained motivation.

"I wanted to adopt a different approach"

"Honestly, I ended my season earlier and I really wanted to get back to work. I didn't take a vacation this year. I felt like I had already had time to rest, and that this rest wasn't really good for my body. I wanted to adopt a different approach, make some sacrifices, and be really enthusiastic and ready for the new year.

I've always struggled in my career after the US Open. You travel from tournament to tournament, you go to Europe where it's dark at 4 p.m., everything looks the same. You don't see daylight. Sometimes, I have a hard time dealing with that.

You make the trips and the efforts because you're a professional, but if I could go back and change one thing, it would be to stop when I wasn't ready physically or mentally. Not forever, just step back.

"You're with your back against the wall, and I like that"

Right now, the only thing that matters is to put myself in a position to win major tournaments, to be in the top 10, to have a great career relative to what could be called the peak of my career. That's what motivated my decision. I'm no longer a highly ranked player.

In ATP 250, ATP 500 tournaments and Grand Slams, you face the top four or five players from the third round. That excites me. It makes me hungry again. It's a different situation, but it's exciting. And it makes every point more important. You no longer have that luxury. You're with your back against the wall, and I like that," Tiafoe stated on Andy Roddick's podcast.