Frances Tiafoe says his “clown” comments have been taken way out of context and blown out of proportion as he insists it was said more in a way to describe how he felt about his form rather than insult or disrespect his colleagues.
At this past Wimbledon, former world No. 10 Tiafoe started his run by staging a five-set 6-7 (5) 2-6 6-1 6-3 6-3 win over 45th-ranked Matteo Arnaldi. For the 26-year-old American, it was yet another tough day at the office in 2024 but at least this time he was able to end on the winning side.
And Tiafoe – who was even on a four-match losing streak during the spring – described his 2024 season as “brutal highs and lows” after the Arnaldi win and also said that he has been “losing to clowns” this year. To no one’s surprise, the American’s comments weren’t welcomed by some as they felt that it was straight disrespectful to talk about certain ATP players that way.
After that statement, Tiafoe went on to beat Borna Coric in the Wimbledon second round before testing eventual Wimbledon champion Carlos Alcaraz – the Spaniard needed five sets to beat the American in their third-round meeting.
Now at the start of this week’s ATP 500 tournament in Washington, Tiafoe was asked about his remark that drew controversy.
“100%. I mean, I definitely like a bunch of team sports. People were saying way worse things. I’ve seen (NBA superstar) Luka Doncic in the Playoffs cursing guys out. I mean, saying way worse things and it’s not that serious,” Tiafoe said.
Tiafoe: Stan Wawrinka and Matteo Berrettini messaged me
Tiafoe, who considers himself “a very chill person,” says fellow players didn’t take his clown comments as something disrespectful. Instead, they had a good laugh after hearing about it.
“Yeah, I think it got taken the wrong way. At the same time, everyone on tour was laughing with me because it was me. I think it was all good fun in the end. I think people are going to hold their hat on that for a while,” Tiafoe said.
And according to Tiafoe, three-time Grand Slam champion Wawrinka and 2021 Wimbledon finalist Berrettini were among the players who joked about his remarks.
“I mean, everyone brought it up to me. Wawrinka sent it to me at 7 AM the next morning when I woke up. Berrettini came up the next day, ‘Thank God I didn’t play you last year.’ A bunch of people were coming up to me in that sense. It was funny, man. It was funny,” Tiafoe revealed.
What Tiafoe exactly said at Wimbledon?
After making his first Grand Slam semifinal at the 2022 US Open and also breaking into the top-10 for the first time last year, Tiafoe made his last really big result at the 2023 US Open – when he was a quarterfinalist.
Since then, Tiafoe has been struggling with his consistency – and apart from a runner-up finish at an ATP 250 tournament in Houston and also being a semifinalist in Delray Beach – the American hasn’t had much success.
And after overcoming Arnaldi in a five-setter to improve to 13-13 on the year at the time, Tiafoe made the comment that has since gone viral.
“It’s brutal. Highs and lows. Think about where I’m at. Literally this week last year I was 10 in the world and now I’m barely seeded here (at Wimbledon). Losing to clowns, I hate to say it but I’m just gonna be honest,” Tiafoe said.
“I took the game for granted and got a little too comfortable. You stop having fun with it and you find yourself in a weird position. Then you kind of forget what you were doing to win? You start doubting yourself and all these kinds of things.
“But it’s the game. It’s like anything, nothing is peaches and cream all the time. It’s about how fast you can kind of get out of that. And there is always light at the end of the tunnel, whether you either try and find it with small wins or continue to feel sorry for yourself and continue to play victim, that’s where it just gets darker and darker and darker.”
After a third-round exit at Wimbledon, Tiafoe went to Atlanta to start his summer on hard courts. There, Tiafoe had a first-round bye before beating Aslan Karatsev in the round-of-16. But after a positive start, Tiafoe suffered a disappointing quarterfinal loss to Yoshihito Nishioka.
This week, Tiafoe is competing in Washington, where he is set to face world No. 124 Daniel Elahi Galan in his opener.