ROLAND GARROS

June 1, 2025

Frances Tiafoe

Press Conference

F. TIAFOE/D. Altmaier

6-3, 6-4, 7-6

THE MODERATOR: Congrats, Frances. You have not dropped a set on your way to your first Grand Slam quarterfinals not on hard courts. How are you feeling?

FRANCES TIAFOE: I feel good. I feel really good. Obviously it's a pretty crazy stat, but I mean, I'm just counting the wins. I'm not really thinking about the sets.

Obviously prefer it that way. It's a bit easier getting off the court pretty quick, but four three-of-five sets. Yeah, just happy to be able to keep advancing.

THE MODERATOR: Questions.

Q. Have you felt like you're playing as well as that stat line would suggest? I mean, that's pretty rare for anybody to make quarters without dropping a set. Relatively rare.

FRANCES TIAFOE: I feel I'm playing great, man. I feel in a great place. I'm just happy being out there. I'm loving the competing and playing super aggressive. Making the game simple.

Just give them what the game gives me and try to play the right way, the way I know how, at my best, and living and dying with the results. It's going my way right now.

Q. I know you've always felt that on any given day you can beat anybody in the world and be really close and be right with them, but do you feel like the gulf between you and the guys at the top is getting smaller? Are you getting closer, or is it just the sort of thing, like, right day, right time, right atmosphere, right court that, for you, bridges that gap?

FRANCES TIAFOE: I think the difference between me and the top guys has been a day. It's always kind of been on the day. I don't think the top guys are really the issue. I think the guys, the pool of people.

If you look at the guys in front of me, I'm much more comfortable playing the guys around me and ahead of me than the other guys. I'm much more reliable, and week to week -- I don't lose to those guys week to week. I lose to everybody else.

That's not really my concern, playing the best guys in the world. I don't fear them. I don't really feel like their level is so much better than mine. I know what I can do on a given day, but winning matches like this, that's what gives me a ton of confidence. That's always been my Achilles heel and something I'm clearly really happy about right now.

Q. This might be an impossible thing to answer, but I'll give it a shot. Can you think of a moment over the last week where you were, like, Hey, I can do this here? Something that clicked for you either during a particular match or maybe even a practice or away from the court, something where you felt like, Okay, this is not going to be a problem for me the way maybe it's been in the past?

FRANCES TIAFOE: Yeah, I told these guys the other day, I broke a racquet a couple of days before the tournament. I was holding a lot of my emotions in of just being like, Yeah, you know, being positive, it's all good, whatever.

I got killed in practice a couple of days before. Then had to practice again. Playing sets with a guy, and I'm getting my butt kicked there. Then found a way to kind of win that set, and I was telling my team that was kind of a big day. Not only that I had emotion and actually, like, but then solved it in real time. Not after the fact, oh, I could have done this and this. I think after that I kind of faced what was really going on.

I was, like, Yeah, it's been horrible. I've been traveling around, and it hasn't been fun at all. Kind of faced it. After that it gave me space to just play. You know, when I can play, I can play. This is not really something that's like a shock. When I'm playing well, I'm there and present and having fun, I think the sky's the limit for me.

Q. I was going to ask about that. Obviously when we see you on court, you kind of wear your emotions clearly, but in general, when you are going through difficult times, is that something that happens sometimes that you hold things in and it kind of gets worse?

FRANCES TIAFOE: Yeah, I mean, sometimes -- I seen a quote. Sometimes when you see the happiest guy in the room, sometimes you've got to ask him how he's doing.

I'm always usually a happy guy. I usually only keep what I'm going through to people close to me. I'm not really a complaining guy.

Yeah, we're human. I'm competing at the highest level, and I have an ego. I have a certain standard that I want to play at. When you're not doing that, it's very frustrating.

At the same time, what's amazing about tennis is week to week, anything can happen. You have to pen your own story. Win one match, win two matches, by the time you know it, now you're sitting here talking about being in the quarters. Everything else that happened for eight months, nine months, it almost didn't happen. It's irrelevant.

Tennis is an amazing sport in that way, but also frustrating in that way as well. You just have to love the ebbs and flows and keep that perspective, right?

Q. Do you think you can play freer? It feels like a house-money situation, being to the quarterfinals of the French more than it would at a tournament where more is expected of you from yourself or from the outside? You go to whoever you play next, Musetti or Rune, and you think, I have relative nothing to lose here?

FRANCES TIAFOE: For sure. I've been the super dark horse. I don't think anyone is really thinking that I was going to even be in this position.

But at the same time, I mean, I don't really look at it like house money. Now that I'm here, I'm like, Let's win. You know, I was having dinner yesterday. I'm like, Yeah, feeling great, but let's keep winning. There's nothing more fun than winning.

You know, once I get my feet going and matches under me, I'm dangerous. Then I'm feeling really good, and I'll play anybody.

Q. You said the word the "dark horse." I'm curious to ask about Hailey. You have two D.C. on Day 9 of the French Open. It's pretty rare. I asked you about her last time, but now that she's facing Keys next, what do you think about that and her continuing to march on?

FRANCES TIAFOE: It's tough. Obviously, you know, I talk so much about her, because obviously I'm super close with Hailey and Madison as well. May the best woman win there.

Obviously I'm leaning a little bit. No secret there. I think it's going to be tough. It's going to be tough. Maddie is incredible. She's won slams here. She's so confident. You've seen her roping a backhand winner down match points and shows how much confidence she's got right now.

They're playing on Lenglen. It's going to be incredible. Hopefully she rises to the occasion. She's never played on a court that big. Let's see if the lights are too bright or if she's made for it. Those are kind of the moments. Yeah. We'll see.

Q. If you could point to one thing in your game how you've played this week that pleases you the most?

FRANCES TIAFOE: How fast I'm playing. I'm playing really fast. Getting on the ball quickly. I'm knocking balls off. I'm not really giving up ground. I'm serving at a pretty decent clip.

Second-serve returns, I'm hopping on. I'm not doing the going-back thing and playing all spinny and running around and just grunting loud and not hitting the ball hard. I'm actually playing hard court tennis on a clay court.

Guys don't really like that so much, but for me I got to commit to it even though it may not be the best thing, quote, unquote, how you're supposed to go about it. I got to just commit to it and live and die by it.

Q. On that hard court tennis on a clay court, is that the conditions are allowing you to do that, because it hasn't been that damp and soggy and stuff like that? Or would you do that no matter what?

FRANCES TIAFOE: I mean, it could be freezing. I'm still going to do it. My success rate just goes higher. The faster I play, the better I move my feet.

If I'm close to the baseline, I'm obviously really dangerous. I can see the court better. My shots are going deeper and getting on the guys quicker. Take the less time for your opponent, you'll be in a winning position. If I can get myself in the front court and be able to suffocate guys that way, I'll probably be in a winning position.

Q. The last, what, 90 minutes, two hours or so, do you look at your phone? Is it blowing up? Are you getting lots of messages? Do you get the feeling this is resonating with your people?

FRANCES TIAFOE: It's the same. It's the same. The thing is it's not like my first time going deep in a major. You know how it is. You win matches, and everyone is texting you and is super excited.

You know, it is what it is, and I'm glad. The people that are around me understand. They're super happy. But again, I'm where my feet are. Quarterfinals is not the end all, be all. Just keep going, keep going.

I'm happy everyone is excited, and your phone is going to be blowing up, and Instagram is going to be blowing up. The most important thing is what's next, and that's the day off and then see who wins.

Q. It's been a few rounds now, but I wanted to check what your level of satisfaction was of seeing Coco leave her racquets when she came on court?

FRANCES TIAFOE: Incredible. I absolutely loved it. It was the first day I saw her today, and I absolutely rinsed her. She was clowning so hard at Indian Wells. She was, like, Man, I can't believe you're doing that, duh, duh, duh.

She was full out shaking her whole bag like it was an empty cookie jar on Chatrier. I was, like, What are you doing? The only person there was her New Balance dude, and she's looking at him, and he is, like, You got New Balance on, so what's up (smiling)?

It was incredible, man. I'm going to keep ripping her for a long time. I've never seen someone 2 in the world have zero things in her bag. That was incredible.

Yeah, I'm glad, and I think it's that kind of thing is so big because it just makes everyone -- like, we're all human. People make mistakes, whether it's the team or her or whatever. That was a funny moment, especially she tries to be Mrs. Mature. That was great. I'm happy it happened to her. Hopefully it happens again (smiling).