The Tiafoe Effect: US tennis star has big impact in Africa
The Tiafoe Effect: US tennis star has big impact in Africa. Sam Jalloh spent the past year traveling all across West Africa, teaching kids how to play tennis and inspiring the next generation of players by showing them photographs and videos of professional players in action on his phone.
The player? Frances Tiafoe.
The strategy of showcasing photos of Tiafoe, an American with Sierra Leonean ancestry, to inspire young Africans have been successful.
Many of the kids have been sending Jalloh texts this week, expressing their excitement over 24-year-old Tiafoe’s stunning journey to the U.S. Open semifinals, during which he defeated Rafael Nadal. “Coach, have you seen Frances? they’re asking.
Incredibly enjoyable. Jalloh remarked, “When these things happen, you can see that it drives children. It’s not just Sierra Leonean kids, either; there’s a lot of enthusiasm. I’m a father to children born in the Gambia, Ghana, and Nigeria. They’ll find a great deal more motivation thanks to this.
Although Tiafoe provides renewed optimism for American tennis, the fact that his parents emigrated from Sierra Leone (Jalloh’s home country) makes him an ideal role model for Jalloh to use, even before this breakthrough U.S. Open, where he advanced to the semifinals on Friday before losing in five sets to Carlos Alcaraz.
Frances Sr. and Alphina Tiafoe had a hard time getting established when they initially moved to the United States. Frances Sr. worked at the Junior Tennis Champions Center in Maryland, first as a laborer and later as a janitor. As a nurse, Alphina worked several late shifts.
Born in Maryland, Frances Jr. and his twin brother Franklin spent their first decade of life in a room that had been converted into an office at the tennis center.
Declaration
Jalloh saw that students in West Africa made “a connection” to Tiafoe because of his tale, even if he also showed them clips of Nadal, the winner of 22 Grand Slam singles titles, and other great players.
According to Jalloh, this motivates the kids to pursue their dreams, whether that’s becoming professional tennis players or something else entirely. The impact of Tiafoe in Africa, he says, will “carry on for a long time.”
According to Jalloh, tennis is much more widespread in West Africa than is commonly believed. He has traveled to many courthouses in many cities and has seen enough promising youth to make that statement.
At least some of the courts he’s coached on have been meticulously laid out and enclosed by fences. Actually, a lot of them aren’t. He has put it to good use no matter what Jalloh has uncovered.
Some are only broken pieces of concrete separating homes in shabby urban areas. Some are man-made areas of level land beyond the city limits.
Here is where Jalloh believes that Tiafoe’s inspirational performance at Flushing Meadows can ignite something in tennis officials in West Africa, just as it did in his young players. As Jalloh put it, you’ll see a lot of talent emerge from Africa once we have the structure and the people with enthusiasm.
Over the past week, hopeful developments have emerged in Sierra Leone. Tiafoe’s success on the tennis court has caught the attention of the national media, which often focuses on soccer.
Statement
On her Facebook page, Fatima Bio, the wife of Sierra Leone’s president, Julius Bio, said about Tiafoe, “You are such an outstanding guy and I want you to know we are celebrating you at home.” Kai Kamara, a former soccer captain of Sierra Leone, named Tiafoe “one of us” and said the country was behind him.
Tiafoe first came to Jalloh’s attention when, at age 15, he triumphed at the famed Orange Bowl junior tournament in Miami. Jalloh was intrigued by Tiafoe, a young talent with Sierra Leonean roots, and he developed a close friendship with Tiafoe’s father.
Remark
According to Jalloh, the two are in constant contact via phone and stayed in touch this week while Frances Jr. made history at the U.S. Open. Jalloh, whose own life story is remarkable, has been revitalized as a result.
Jalloh was one of eleven children born to his parents in Freetown, the capital of Sierra Leone; they placed him for adoption when he was six years old due to financial hardship.
He escaped his adoptive family and spent time on the streets of Freetown before finding his way back to his mom. Then he discovered tennis and went from playing on the streets with his hand and homemade wooden bats to becoming a national tennis player for Sierra Leone, earning $250 and a team tracksuit, his “biggest ambition.”
He’s been instructing professional golfers from his home in England and is eagerly preparing for his next trip to Africa.
He plans to return to West Africa in early 2023, this time armed with tennis gear and plenty of new film recordings of Tiafoe, and he has his sights set on Kenya, Zimbabwe, and South Africa for the rest of this year. The answer is a resounding, “Yes, I have a lot now.” “I’ll have a lot to show the youngsters,” Jalloh remarked.
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