College Park, Maryland tennis prodigy Frances Tiafoe was recently featured in the New York Times. The 15-year-old rising star has one of the greatest back stories in all of tennis. As a child, he stayed with his family in a small room on the grounds of the Junior Tennis Champions Center/Tennis Center at College Park where his father serves as maintenance director. Frances has an extremely bright future. Our first notice of him came from juniors coverage at Zoo Tennis and our blog did a brief post on him in February.
Unfortunately, Tiafoe has just withdrawn from the US Open National Playoffs, Mid-Atlantic Sectional Qualifying. He was scheduled to play his first round match at 1:30 p.m. on Saturday, but defaulted today due to “Adult Decision”. Tennis East Coast spoke to Tournament Director Marco Impeduglia, who confirmed that he received an email from a parent or other responsible adult indicating that Tiafoe would not be playing tennis on his home courts this weekend.
A local notable on the men’s side still scheduled for play is Junior Ore of Gaithersburg, Maryland, who will play at 8:00 a.m. on Saturday.
The event is one of 13 national sectionals, is free for spectators and runs through June 5. Winners will advance to the National Playoffs in New Haven, Connecticut in late August, and men and women singles winners nab a qualifying wild card to the US Open. Mixed Doubles winners go straight into the main draw at Flushing Meadows.
Tennis Atlantic 
Return Serve?