Kouznetsov Regrets Losing His Creation, Tiafoe

By Scoop Malinowski

One of the most intriguing tennis stories of the modern era went off script a few times. Frances Tiafoe, the son of a janitor at Junior Tennis Champions Center in Maryland became an elite top 10 ATP World Tour professional tennis player.

His first coach Misha Kouznetsov, a former college player, shared some details and insights about the journey by the longshot from the lowest levels of tennis… to stadium courts at Grand Slam tournaments.

The son of immigrants from Sierra Leone and his twin brother (Franklin) were raised at the Junior Tennis Champions Center (JTCC), a USTA regional training center in College Park, Maryland, where his father worked as the head of maintenance.

Against all odds, young Frances, with a burning desire and strong interest in tennis, emerged from his humble beginnings to become a top American junior prospect and potential future professional star. At 15, Tiafoe won the 2013 Orange Bowl, the tournament’s youngest-ever boys’ singles champion. At 17, he became the youngest American in the main draw of the French Open since former ATP world no. 2 Michael Chang in 1989. Also as teenager, “Big Foe” won the US Junior National Championship in Kalamazoo and he achieved early success on the ATP Challenger Tour, reaching nine finals and winning four titles.

Tiafoe parted ways with Kouznetsov in 2015, before the big successes were accomplished. But the decision is still regarded by some tennis observers to have been an unforced error.

Kouznetsov remembers: “Roc Nation came in and signed Frances when he was 17 (in 2015). I had quit my job at JTCC to coach Frances full time, I quit my $100,000 a year job. I was at the meeting in New York when he signed with Roc Nation. Then Frances decided to leave me and go with USTA. I had a pregnant wife and two year old son. All the Roc Nation rappers never paid anyone. I had bought shoes for Frances, paid for entry fees, food, the amount of time I spent with him. His mom never saw him play until US Open juniors. The father never did anything tennis-wise, now they are trying to make him look like Richard Williams [laughs].”

Tiafoe was ranked no. 2 in the world in ITF juniors when he signed with Jay Z’s Roc Nation, which also managed NBA and NFL athletes and some professional boxers. (Tiafoe was the first tennis professional to sign with Roc Nation.)

“When Frances went to USTA, he was coached by Jose Higueras, Nicolas Todero and Robby Ginepri. Higueras was coaching sixteen other guys. From age 18-23 Frances had a losing record, he couldn’t do anything. Then he worked with his buddies Zach (Evenden) and Jordi (Arconada), they were hitting partners he paid like $500 a week. Clubbing buddies.” Tiafoe worked with Evenden from 2018-2020, Arconada is still on the team as hitting partner.

Tiafoe did win the first of his three ATP titles in 2018 at Delray Beach Open. He also made quarterfinals at 2019 Australian Open. Tiafoe cracked the top 30 in ATP World rankings in 2019. Foe’s first top five win came in 2021 at Wimbledon where he defeated the French Open finalist and ATP no. 3 Stefanos Tsitsipas in the first round.

In early 2020 Tiafoe began to work with former ATP top ten player Wayne Ferreira from South Africa.

“Then with Wayne Ferreira, Wayne instilled discipline,” Kouznetsov said. “I’m sure Wayne did change him. Then he started to get some good results. I don’t think he paid Wayne in the first year, travel expenses only. He was a volunteer coach at Cal-Berkeley and he is involved in other business.”

With Ferreira directing, Tiafoe achieved his best results – highest ranking no. 10 in July 2023, US Open semifinal 2022 and US Open quarterfinal 2023. When Tiafoe decided to part ways with Ferreira in December 2023, he then began collaboration with the former USTA coach Diego Moyano which did not last long due to mediocre results.

Tiafoe is currently ranked 29 in the world. He reached quarterfinal at French Open this year and semifinal at US Open 2024. He is still an elite level player who can bounce back into the top ten – or higher – with a few minor tweaks to his tactics, technique and mindset.

Kouznetsov still has some communication with Tiafoe but they haven’t talked in many years.

“I texted Frances last week. He needs to go away and fix his forehand for two months. He’s shanking every fourth ball. Opponents just go hard down the middle to his forehand. He just played those two Davis Cup matches in Delray Beach vs Czech Republic and lost both. The captain should have played (Reilly) Opelka in the final match. You can’t put a guy in with no confidence.”

“I think he got comfortable. The money started coming in. Fritz gets $7m a year from Hugo Boss. Frances is probably getting $3-5m a year from Lululemon.” So far, Big Foe’s career prize money earnings are nearing $15m. It has been reported Tiafoe earns approximately $11-13m annually, with additional endorsement deals with Cadillac, Evian, Stella Artois, Yonex.

“The question for Frances is: Are you willing to grind and make changes? Some coaches just show up and sit in the stands. I do the dirty work, doing the live ball drills, repetitions, the dirty work is hard to do. It was very tough for the first five years after we split. But it worked out. My plan B worked out. In 2015 I got divorced, it took four years to get back on my feet. I coach a lot of juniors and people taking privates.”

“I started with Frances when he was eight years old – our first day was Oct. 23, 2006 – we were improving fast, forehand, backhand slice was a weapon. His forehand started to slide after the big Orange Bowl win due to travel and his stubborness to listen and make changes, Hey, I’m winning. Basically, immaturity, stubborness, but when a shot goes off you have to make changes. Then when the money started to come in, they don’t want to make changes. When someone is 17, immature, it’s hard to make changes. I cared, like, my life depended on it. He was not so focused, girl crazy, he’s not going to make a change. He needed a steady coach, parent figure.”

At age 27, Tiafoe can still achieve his best results, Kouznetsov believes. 

“The goal was to win a Slam, we could have won a Slam. If you want to win, the confidence has to be there, the strategy, the fitness, the technical, mental part. The fire is there, he knows how to get the crowds fired up. He knows how to play in the big courts. To win a Slam everything has to come together. Sinner and Alcaraz – everything is there. When you have a good situation, you don’t change it like Roc Nation. We needed the money, he ran out of money, I needed to pay bills, family, it’s hard financially. You can do it. But not everyone has it like Pegula, Navarro, Fritz. If everything is in order, with discipline, the situation with parents, Frances can still do it.”

Kouznetsov hopes Frances can pay him back for all the years of hard work he and his former wife put in getting him to every single junior tournament until his big win at Orange Bowl.

Frances Tiafoe · JTCC · Lululemon · Misha Kouznetsov · Orange Bowl · US Open · Yonex

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