American tennis star Frances Tiafoe left it all on the court during his third-round match against Portugal’s Jaime Faria at Roland-Garros on Saturday, including ace-level trash talk.
Tiafoe lost the first two sets but battled back to force a fifth set. During the fifth set, Faria and Tiafoe started chirping at each other. The chair umpire descended to the court and met Faria at the net. “All of this has to stop,” she said.
Tiafoe walked toward them and told Faria, “Why don’t you quit trying to act like you’re tough? You’re not hard, bro, just play.” The chair umpire repeated herself, “All of this has to stop.” A few moments later, she called Faria over to her chair and sent him a personal message to cut out the theatrics.
Ultimately, Tiafoe walked away with the last laugh, as he won the match after four hours.
After his win over Faria, Tiafoe told TNT’s Sloane Stephens that their trash-talking at the net carried him through the rest of the match.
“I felt like I needed that, too, because I’m up at the time, but I’m still a little nervous,” Tiafoe said. “And he was serving. He was definitely giving me a lot of lip. He thought he was Ryan Garcia or something, so I just had to definitely let him know, like, yo, chill out, bro, and just play. Enjoy being in Paris and just play.”
He will face Italy’s Matteo Arnaldi in the Round of 16 on Monday. Tiafoe reached the quarterfinals at Roland-Garros last year but has never won a Grand Slam title.
Watch the interaction below.
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