Frances Tiafoe returns home to JTCC to launch charitable fund

COLLEGE PARK — Frances Tiafoe returned home Thursday to the place that helped raise him with a promise to pay it forward for the next generation.

The No. 10 player in the world announced the creation of his own foundation, The Frances Tiafoe Fund, in front of nearly 100 youth players at the Junior Tennis Champions Center. The fund will provide tennis resources and programming to under-resourced youth across the country via the National Junior Tennis and Learning network, originally established by tennis legend and Virginia native Arthur Ashe in 1969.

“I’m so excited for this opportunity to work with the USTA Foundation and inspire kids who come from my hometown and beyond,” Tiafoe said. “One of my priorities has always been to show kids that dreams can come true and that success is in everyone — and this fund is just one step further toward that goal.”

The fund kicked off with a combined $250,000 in donations — $150,000 from the USTA and $100,000 from one of Tiafoe’s sponsors, energy bar company Clif.

“I’ve been thinking about creating a foundation for a very long time now … I think the biggest thing I want to tell all the young people who look up to me is it’s about the person you are first and the athlete second,” the Hyattsville-born Tiafoe said. “You want to be remembered for who you are and not what you’ve done.”

Tiafoe, who’s won two ATP titles in a career year for him, also hit around and gave tips to those children in attendance on the same JTCC courts that were the foundation for his success. His father, Constant, helped build the College Park facility and served as its head of maintenance after fleeing civil war in his home country of Sierra Leone in 1996.

“I’m very, very proud,” Constant said. “This is how [Frances and his younger brother, Franklin] have been raised. When we got here, we came with nothing. So if we live here, and we have something now, we have to use the platform.”

“If we can generate some for them to have all this stuff that’s happening here, it can’t get any better than that.”

The announcement and homecoming come just days before the start of Tiafoe’s home tournament, the Mubadala Citi DC Open, which begins Monday in Rock Creek Park. He lost last year in a thrilling three-set quarterfinal match to eventual champion Nick Kyrgios.