Frances Tiafoe's hard-won achievement in Europe needs more cheers back home in the United States

WATCH: Frances Tiafoe wins Stuttgart in high drama

“Tee-a-foe, Tee-a-foe,” the chants went up on Court 1 at Queen’s Club on Tuesday afternoon. “He comes from America, and he plays tennis.”

Granted, the words were more literal, and less rousing, than most sports-fan choruses. And they were sung by just three men, who stood arm in arm and looked like they might have imbibed a beer or a Pimm’s or two at some point during the day. But Frances Tiafoe was happy to take all the support he could get on the road. When the Maryland native finished his 6-2, 6-4 win over Botic van de Zandschulp, he saluted his devotees by raising his racquet and slicing a ball into the stands in their direction.

Tiafoe has earned his praise of late. Two days ago, the 25-year-old recorded what may have been the most satisfying win of his career, in a third-set tiebreaker, over Jan-Lennard Struff, in front of the German’s home fans in the Stuttgart final. It was Tiafoe’s third title, his first on grass, and his first outside of the United States.

Sweetest of all, according to him, was the fact that it put him into the Top 10 for the first time.

“Super emotional for a guy like me with my story and everything,” Tiafoe said afterward. “A guy who shouldn’t even really be here doing half the things he’s doing. And now when you say his name, you can say he’s Top 10 in the world. So that’s something that no one can take from you.”

Grass-court tennis is often tiebreak tennis, and Tiafoe went 5-1 in them in Stuttgart. The way he won the last of them, 10-8 against Struff, was a good indicator of why he’s ranked where he’s ranked now, and how far he has taken his game since connecting with coach Wayne Ferreira three years ago.

Tiafoe has always had the speed and the hands, but on Sunday he showed his mastery of the game’s nitty-gritty details, the unglamorous plays that separate winners from losers, champions from runners-up. Down 4-5 in the final tiebreaker and forced to hit a second serve, he came up with an excellent kick out wide that won him the point. Down a match point, he guided a perfectly controlled backhand into the open court for a winner. After losing one match point in a long rally, he didn’t let a second one get away. This time, it really was his athleticism that saved him, as he made a diving drop volley to close out the victory.

“Everybody gets lucky sometimes,” Tiafoe told the crowd, before saying he just wanted to “start drinking.”

Tennis fans often hear that bad actors are good for the game. The implication is that you need to jerks to bring in fans. Tiafoe proves that notion false. He’s a showman who always tries to give something to the audience, to show that he knows they’re there. And they respond. You could see it, obviously, during his semifinal run at the US Open last year, but you could also see it at the Australian Open, where he played for packed houses who cheered for him like he was one of their own.

Tiafoe has smashed his share of racquets, but he’s a good guy who’s good for the game, wherever he plays. He’s also a terrific representative for American tennis, and for the United States as a whole. He’s the child of African immigrants who picked up the sport at the club where his father worked as a maintenance man. He came through the USTA’s player-development system, and when he seemed to have hit a plateau outside the Top 50, he hired Ferreira to get him over the next hurdle. On Monday, he became the third Black American man to make the Top 10, after Arthur Ashe and James Blake.

Tiafoe has also begun to do things that U.S. men haven’t typically done in recent years—win on all surfaces, and in other countries. Before this season, his only title had come on hard courts in Delray Beach in 2018. This spring he won his second, on clay in Houston, and now he has this third, on grass in Germany. His friend and fellow Top 10 American, Taylor Fritz, who reached the semifinals in Monte Carlo this spring, has shown a similar ability to adapt, and a desire to win everywhere.

Too often U.S. sports fans measure this country’s success in tennis by how many major titles we win. That remains the goal, but the patient, hard-fought breakthroughs of first Fritz and now Tiafoe should be celebrated. If you’re looking for a player to bring new audiences and communities—and future champions—to tennis, Tiafoe is the ideal candidate. And he’s willing to try.

“If there are kids out there who don’t think they can achieve their dreams, I want to change that,” he wrote for the ATP’s website after winning the tour’s Arthur Ashe Humanitarian Award in 2020. “I really believe success is in everyone. I want to paint a picture for them that they didn’t know was possible. I want to help them make that a reality.”

Let’s hope those cheers—“Tee-a-foe! Tee-a-foe! Tee-a-foe!”—for Frances only grow louder, especially back at home.