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ultrasfcb-blog · 6 years ago

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Frances Tiafoe: The janitor

Frances Tiafoe (left) aged 9 on the tennis membership the place he grew up, and at this 12 months’s Australian Open (proper)

2018 French Open Venue: Roland Garros, Paris Dates: 27 Could-10 June Protection: Each day dwell radio and textual content commentaries on BBC Radio 5 dwell and the BBC Sport web site

Frances Tiafoe is talking from a bed room in a five-star lodge in Geneva.

It’s a stark distinction to the place the American spent lots of his boyhood nights, sleeping on the ground of a spare workplace in Maryland alongside his father and twin brother.

However a younger Tiafoe – now 20, 61st on the planet, and getting ready for a French Open first-round match in opposition to Sam Querrey – felt lucky bedding down in that three-metre-by-four again room, even earlier than he knew it was the important thing to his future life.

Tiafoe is a rank outsider for the French Open, however his story – and that of his household – is of higher odds overcome and slim possibilities seized.

It begins, two years earlier than he was born, together with his mom Alphina.

Frances Tiafoe, entrance left, together with his twin brother Franklin, mom Alphina and father Frances Sr

Again in 1996, she was one of many lucky few from the worldwide hundreds of thousands to enter the USA’ inexperienced card lottery.

The scheme – formally often known as the diversity visa program – randomly allocates 55,000 visas to candidates from international locations with low immigration charges to the USA.

With civil struggle deepening in her native Sierra Leone, Alphina tried her luck and was handed a path to a brand new life within the USA.

Three years later and with household funds stretched, Tiafoe’s father Frances Sr joined a building crew engaged on the Junior Tennis Champions Centre (JTCC) – an expansive, costly multi-court facility close to Washington DC.

With Tiafoe and twin brother Franklin only a 12 months outdated, Frances Sr labored furiously to impress and, from the 50 or so builders on the job, was rewarded with a job because the centre’s upkeep man when it was full.

Even with these two lengthy photographs coming in although, the household’s existence was nonetheless precarious.

As Alphina lived with kin in a one-bedroom flat and labored night time shifts as a nurse, Frances Sr quietly turned his lengthy hours on the JTCC into 24-hour residence, taking his two sons with him.

With out the correct paperwork in place to make use of the workplace as dwelling quarters, the membership’s administration stored the scenario on the down-low.

An odd dwelling association got here with a wierd fringe profit although – all-you-can-eat top-quality tennis tuition for the inquisitive.

Toddlers Frances and Franklin would wander the grounds, watching, listening, absorbing and, when there was a spare second or courtroom, making an attempt to hit.

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“My first actual reminiscence was my dad taking me and my twin brother to the membership and holding our hand whereas we hit a ball in opposition to a backboard,” Tiafoe informed BBC Sport.

“As we acquired older, we might go faculty and faucet the ball in opposition to the wall and when there was a courtroom open, we might hop on.”

Tiafoe’s apparent aptitude, and his father’s recognition across the membership, gained him and Franklin free locations among the many JTCC’s gifted children.

As an eight-year-old, it nonetheless, at occasions, felt as if he had been dealt a shedding hand.

“I used to be complaining about being made enjoyable of for the garments I used to be carrying,” he stated. “I had lots of Pokemon Pikachu t-shirts on courtroom and hand-me-downs from different youngsters.

“I used to be getting scorching and stated to my pops, ‘why are we at all times strolling round in no-name model socks with holes in my footwear?'”

That was when Frances Sr rolled again the sliding doorways to indicate what life may have been like.

A 12-year-old Tiafoe, second from proper, with JTCC employees and pupils together with present Tour skilled Denis Kudla, third from proper

He informed Alphina to take the boys along with her when she attended a marriage in Freetown, Sierra Leone’s capital.

“That positively put life into a totally completely different perspective – the poverty was fairly dangerous,” Tiafoe remembered.

“We realised that we ain’t wealthy or dwelling the excessive life, however we’re positively nonetheless blessed. We acquired meals on the desk each night time, dad and mom who love us, a TV, all of the equipment we want. It ain’t horrible, you realize what I saying?

“I used to be positively not operating my mouth after that – I used to be concerning the happiest child on the planet.

“It humbled me and made me severe. It got here into my head fairly fast to make use of tennis as a approach to assist, not solely myself, however our household as a result of they’ve sacrificed a lot.”

If Tiafoe’s background impressed him, it additionally had the ability to do the identical for others. As a 14-year-old, he was the topic of a 1,000-word profile in the New York Times.

When he was 16, the Washington Post followed suit.

As his story unfold, sponsors signed up, brokers circled and what was a drawback, partly at the very least, paid again as a bonus.

“My academy did an ideal job of getting my story on the market for folks to listen to about me, get and needed to fund me,” defined Tiafoe.

“I had some sponsors who helped me with journey cash as a result of they knew my dad and mom could not.

By the point he was 15, Tiafoe had lengthy since left Pokemon t-shirts behind with racquet and sportswear offers in place

“I used it to my benefit and now right here I’m.”

Right here, through a prestigious junior wins and Challenger Tour success, is Geneva and remaining preparations to face compatriot Querrey at Roland Garros.

Here’s a run of kind that has seen him beat Juan Martin del Potro, Tomas Berdych, Pablo Carreno Busta and Kyle Edmund prior to now three months and declare his first tour title with a win at Delray Seaside.

And right here can be a spot within the midst of a era of American gamers reflective of the political and social divisions again residence.

Final month in Estoril, Tiafoe saved three match factors to beat Tennys Sandgren, who was requested to defend his social media interest in white nationalist accounts throughout January’s Australian Open.

American primary John Isner used his post-match interview after beating Tiafoe on the 2016 US Open to explain Colin Kaepernick as “pathetic” for refusing to face for the nationwide anthem in protest on the therapy of black folks in the USA.

John Isner and Tiafoe meet on the internet after their first-round match on the 2016 US Open

Serena Williams, who donated $100,000 to Kaepernick’s charity in January, presumably thinks otherwise. Former American primary James Blake, wrongly arrested whereas standing exterior a lodge in 2015, certainly does.

Tiafoe will not be about to affix the dialog, believing actions converse louder than phrases.

“I’m not going to inform you that I learn about politics as a result of I do not,” he stated. “There are some guys who do, however that isn’t me. I attempt to keep out of it and keep in my lane.

“I attempt to deal with everybody with love and respect. Should you try this, you get the identical again, if no more. It by no means acquired so left that I felt that I should not be right here.”

It’s love and belonging which have fuelled Tiafoe’s present streak.

After shedding 4 of his first 5 Tour matches in 2018, he returned to the JTCC – and credit every week on the Faculty Park courts the place he grew up for turning round his 12 months, and presumably profession.

“You may’t neglect your roots,” he stated. “It was nearly remembering why I began tennis within the first place and being amongst individuals who will love you it doesn’t matter what, whether or not you’re on prime on the underside.”

Zack Evenden, Tiafoe, Frances Sr and health coach Paul Kinney after his win in Delray Seaside

Zack Evenden is a type of.

The Londoner, whose promising junior profession within the UK became teaching stints within the States, now serves as hitting accomplice, assistant coach and good buddy in Tiafoe’s camp.

Collectively they’re prepared for Tiafoe’s third look within the French Open foremost draw. His first draw got here as a wide-eyed 17-year-old wildcard in 2015.

A 17-year-old Tiafoe in motion on the 2015 French Open. Clay is his favorite floor after coaching and taking part in on inexperienced clay within the States

On that event, he got here to the web after two units of his first-round defeat, solely to be reminded by opponent Martin Klizan that he had one other to undergo in Grand Slam tennis.

Now, stuffed with confidence, wealthy in expertise, grounded by perspective, three from 5 are the form of numbers that Tiafoe is able to crack.

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blackresearchcentral · 7 years ago

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Arthur Ashe - Rebel of Rebels

Photo of the Arthur Ashe Monument by Jim on Flickr

Photo of the Arthur Ashe Monument by Ron Cogswell on Flickr

The Legend of Arthur Ashe

22 years ago, the statue shown here, designed by Paul DiPasquale and dedicated in memory of Richmond's own tennis pioneer and star Arthur Ashe, Jr. (1943-1993), was proposed to be erected on Monument Avenue in Richmond, Virginia, a site which until 1996 contained only statues of men with a relationship to the (so-called) Confederate States of America.

Photo of Arthur Ashe at the 1975 ABN AMRO World Tennis Tournament in Rotterdam, Netherlands by Rob Bogaerts / Anefo

Source: Nationaal Archief (National Archives of the Netherlands)

Arthur Ashe was the only black man ever to win three Grand Slam titles. He accomplished this by winning the singles title at Wimbledon (9th attempt), the US Open Tennis Championships, and the Australian Open. The only other man of black African ancestry to win any Grand Slam singles title was France's Yannick Noah, who won the 1983 French Open.

He retired in 1980.

The Trials of Arthur Ashe

In 1970, Richmond was a segregated city.

Maggie L. Walker High School, which Ashe attended, was first opened in the 1930s as a school for African-Americans.

Ashe was precluded from playing Caucasian youths during the school year and he was not allowed to use the city's indoor courts which were closed to black players.

He later moved to St. Louis his senior year to attend Sumner High School, the first school west of the Mississippi established for blacks in 1875. This was a school that had to relocate in the 1880s because parents complained that their children were walking past the city gallows and morgue on their way to school.

In 1969, Ashe applied for a visa to play in the 1969 South African Open (tennis) but was denied the visa by the South African government who enforced a strict apartheid policy of racial segregation. He continued to apply for visas in the following years and the country continued to deny him one. In protest, he used this example of discrimination to campaign for U.S. sanctions against South Africa and the expulsion of the nation from the International Lawn Tennis Federation (International Tennis Federation) but, in defense of the individual South African players, refused the call from activists to forfeit matches against them.

He thought competing in South Africa in the 1970's would help set an example for the government about the benefits of integration but later joined boycott supporters after he tried to purchase tickets for some young Africans for a tennis match and was told to use an "Africans only" counter.

In the early 1980s, Ashe is believed to have contracted HIV from a blood transfusion he received during heart bypass surgery. Ashe publicly announced his illness in April 1992 and began working to educate others about HIV and AIDS. He founded the Arthur Ashe Foundation for the Defeat of AIDS and the Arthur Ashe Institute for Urban Health before his death from AIDS-related pneumonia on February 6, 1993.

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In July 1979, Ashe suffered a heart attack while holding a tennis clinic in New York. In view of his high level of fitness as an athlete, his condition drew attention to the hereditary aspect of heart disease; Ashe's mother already had cardiovascular disease at the time of her death, aged 27, and his father had suffered a first heart attack, aged 55, and a second, aged 59, just a week before Ashe's own attack.

In 1983, Ashe underwent a second round of heart surgery to correct the previous bypass surgery. After the surgery, Ashe became national campaign chairman for the American Heart Association.

Pictured is an ad of Arthur Ashe promoting heart health. He is holding the book "Medicine for the Layman: Heart Attacks" published by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) in 1980.

You can see an another poster created by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services here.

The Spirit of Arthur Ashe

In 1988, Ashe published a three-volume book titled A Hard Road to Glory: A History of the African-American Athlete, after working with a team of researchers for nearly six years. Ashe stated that the book was more important than any tennis titles.

Ashe had this to say on his purpose for writing the series:

As a young sports fan, I idolized Jackie Robinson—as did most black kids in the late '40s and early '50s. But I was also inspired by people like Althea Gibson, Bill Russell, and Sugar Ray Robinson. Reading of their feats helped motivate me to seek a career as a professional athlete.

This passion for sports, perhaps, made it inevitable that I would someday write A Hard Road to Glory, my three-volume history of the African-American athlete. When I discovered that no such comprehensive chronicle of the black athlete's experience had ever been done, I immediately set to researching the work. Soon I learned that while I admired Jackie Robinson's prowess on the diamond, I had no conception of the struggle he faced, the hardships he overcame. What's more, I learned about people like Jack Johnson, Joe Gans, Isaac Murphy, Marshall Taylor and Howard P. Drew—athletic icons, one and all, who were obviously ignored in post-World War II sports histories. It is impossible to overestimate the popularity of these figures. In their day, they were much better known and admired than Booker T. Washington, W. E. B. Dubois, and Marcus Garvey. But for black athletes, the competition was often the least imposing obstacle; there was also discrimination, vilification, incarceration and ultimate despair to overcome. Sadly, only a few of the historic sports greats were able to live out their post-athletic days in peace and prosperity. The book...is designed to ensure that they are not forgotten.

Ashe was still an active civil rights supporter in later years.

He was a member of a delegation of 31 prominent African-Americans who visited South Africa to observe political change in the country as it approached racial integration. On January 11, 1985, he was arrested for protesting outside the The Embassy of the Republic of South Africa in the United... during an anti-apartheid rally. He was arrested again on September 9, 1992, outside The White House for protesting on the recent crackdown on Haitian refugees.

Here is an excerpt from a short article by The New York Times on July 18, 1995 marking the occasion when the Richmond City Council voted "Yes":

Today's vote of 7 to 0 with one abstention followed a seven-hour public hearing that amounted to a searching of the city's soul. More than 170 people registered to speak, and several wore Confederate garb.

Thirteen members of Mr. Ashe's family, sitting in the front row of the packed council chamber, said they were united in favor of placing the statue on Monument Avenue.

Mayor Leonidas B. Young II, who is black, said, "A city has been healed. I hear voices crying from graves, and I feel the spirit of people who have never properly been recognized."

Photo of the Arthur Ashe Monument by Ron Cogswell on Flickr

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#Arthur Ashe #tennis #tennis history #black history #american history #u.s. history #sports #civil rights #segregation #apartheid #confederate states of america

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susanjminter · 3 years ago

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Prospect of no jab, no visa for Australian Open tennis stars - Associated Press

Prospect of no jab, no visa for Australian Open tennis stars Associated PressView Full Coverage on Google News Originally Published here: Prospect of no jab, no visa for Australian Open tennis stars - Associated Press

#Spliced Feed 4 (Susan Minter)#Prospect of no jab #no visa for Australian Open tennis stars - Associ