MUBADALA DC OPEN

July 25, 2026

Frances Tiafoe

Press Conference

THE MODERATOR: Frances, welcome back to the DMV. Can you give us your thoughts on playing here at home?

FRANCES TIAFOE: Yeah, so excited to be home, once again. I love being here. I love playing at home. I love seeing all family and friends, people I haven't seen in a long time. It's always great to be back.

Yeah, the tournament keeps getting better and better every year. Seeing the field get tougher and tougher every year, it's great. Yeah, it's nice to be home this long after Wimbledon, as well.

THE MODERATOR: Questions.

Q. Frances, what was your time after Wimbledon? Did you come straight home? Did you take any time off? What was the routine?

FRANCES TIAFOE: Yeah, I came straight home. I was dealing with a little -- I was trying to get my body right, healthy. Played a lot. So, yeah, came straight home, fixed a few kinks that I had.

Then I've just been relaxing. Obviously we all went to Tommy's wedding and did some stuff in New York. It was good. It's been a fun time off, and now ready to kind of get back and enjoy myself and get back to my routine and play some tennis.

Q. You've spoken a lot about adopting a stricter training regimen and kind of changing your overall mindset towards practice. I was wondering if you could compare your mindset in this current moment to how you were feeling towards tennis around the same time last year?

FRANCES TIAFOE: Yeah, I mean, I was pretty fly-by-night last year. Kind of just doing what I felt like doing. I feel my routine is definitely helping me be locked in and show up every day and continue to try to give my best self each and every day. Just trying to be better each day. Just try to get a little better each day, like more in a holistic-type situation. Not just on the court.

You know, I want to improve myself off the court. I want to be a better brother, a better boyfriend, a better son. So kind of all helps me to be a better player in the end.

Q. Are you feeling more hopeful about the ability to get results that maybe you weren't getting last year?

FRANCES TIAFOE: I've been having some good results this year, so I've been feeling pretty good. Not hopeful about it. It's been realistic, so it's been quite good.

Obviously here I'm excited to see what I can do. I mean, no secret of what I want to do here. I'm not really in a place to just keep talking about it. I think it's pretty obvious what I want to do here.

Q. (Audio interruption.) How would you describe your season as we reach this midpoint? You've obviously had highs, winning Halle, reaching the finals of Acapulco, and then maybe some disappointing results. (Audio interruption.)

FRANCES TIAFOE: I would say pretty consistent. I've been extremely consistent this year. Winning a lot of matches. Most matches I've won. I was trying to be like Arthur Fils, you know (laughing).

(Off microphone conversation with Arthur Fils.)

FRANCES TIAFOE: Yeah, it's been really consistent. I've been really happy with it. I've been giving myself a chance week in, week out in the draws of beating guys and I guess making it super tough for guys.

Every match I've played has been we're going to the wire, whether win or lose. It's been good. It's been a lot of fun. Hope to continue.

Q. You've talked numerous times about how much this tournament means to you and how badly you want to win it. You were talking about your mindset a little bit before. Would you say that your mental approach and your mindset coming into this tournament is different than others? If so, how? Or is it pretty standard to how you prepare mentally for other tournaments?

FRANCES TIAFOE: No, I mean, of course, you have a little more edge in this tournament, for sure. I know everyone so well. You know, all my friends, family are coming to the event. Wanting to put my name around the stadium. Knowing the owner of the event, knowing everybody else, it's a lot. You want to do well. You want to win.

So obviously, I mean, this is the first -- every time I watched pro tennis, I remember sneaking in here. It's great to be here and great to be, quote, unquote, one of the marquee guys coming.

Yeah, you get a little nervous, but I mean, it's part of it, and it's a great experience.

Q. The last few years it's been a sort of ongoing conversations with a bunch of the guys about the quality of the balls getting worse. I'm curious for you what you've made of that trend and how sensitive you are to the ball quality issues that other guys talk about.

FRANCES TIAFOE: I don't really care, to be honest (smiling).

Q. Why not?

FRANCES TIAFOE: I've honestly, like -- I guess it hasn't really affected me. I don't really think about it. I don't know.

Like I don't even know my racquet specs, so I'm not really like a, oh, ball quality, whatever. I don't know. I'm the wrong guy to ask. I really don't care.

Q. Is it how you grew up, just sort of not being too --

FRANCES TIAFOE: Yeah, probably. I mean, I played with a bunch of different balls, played with a bunch of different racquets growing up.

I'm the wrong guy to ask, like, Oh, how do these balls feel? To me it felt the same way it did last week. I don't know. Maybe the other guys can break it down a little better for you, but I'm not the guy.

Q. I just want to ask you, you mentioned you've seen the tournament change and grow over the years. I'm wondering, this is your 10th appearance here. Has your perspective or approach to this tournament changed for yourself compared to maybe years ago, or has it remained status quo over the years?

FRANCES TIAFOE: No, I mean, as you get older, you -- I have more appreciation for it as I get older, because seeing it develop, seeing the people get more and more excited to see me play and be here every year.

You know, you grow up. Obviously this year I feel like I've been a lot more closed-off than I have in years before, just trying to -- it's hard, because everyone wants to see me and do stuff and whatever, but I guess the only thing I'm focused on is trying to win matches out here and put on the best show I can.

Yeah, it's great. It's fun. I have a great time being here. I love being here. I love playing, but I'm pretty focused on the mission.

Q. You're playing doubles here this week, but you don't play, you know, doubles all year-round. I wanted to know, based on your sort of load of playing in singles, how important is doubles in your preparation for a singles, or do you like playing it, or is it something you want to play more if you didn't have to maybe, per se, play five sets at a Grand Slam or something?

FRANCES TIAFOE: Yeah, I mean, I like playing doubles. Especially if I haven't played in a while, get out there and play a match before I play singles. This week I got to carry an older guy, so it's not easy (laughing). He's going to be tough.

But, no, I'm excited to get out there and play doubles. Especially here, it gives the fans another chance to see me play and play on a good court, have people go crazy. It's fun. It will be a good atmosphere.

Doubles is great. I like playing doubles. It's just hard on the body at times playing week in and week out, especially when you're going deep in singles, but I haven't played in three weeks. Excited to get out there and play doubles.

Q. You have played against Kei Nishikori. He entered this tournament. Do you have thoughts about him or some message or something?

FRANCES TIAFOE: Yeah, yeah. I'm a big fan of Kei. Through and through, he's one of the nicest guys. A great player, a hell of a career. Obviously this is his last year and a wild card here and playing.

It's been fun to watch him play for so many years. We've gotten really close over the years. Yeah, I mean, him retiring is kind of crazy. Makes me feel like I'm obviously getting old. To hear him say it's my 10th appearance, and it's wild to see that he's calling it a career pretty soon. He's one of -- obviously in Japan it doesn't get much bigger than him. Maybe Ohtani.

He's a special athlete and a special guy. I hope he enjoys the rest of the year, and yeah, I hope I get to play him. I got to beat him, because we only played once, and he beat me back in the day, so I want to beat him on the way out, for sure.