{"id":102391,"date":"2025-08-30T04:22:07","date_gmt":"2025-08-30T04:22:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/102391\/"},"modified":"2025-08-30T04:22:07","modified_gmt":"2025-08-30T04:22:07","slug":"frances-tiafoe-reflects-on-althea-gibsons-legacy-i-want-to-pay-it-forward-atp-tour","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/102391\/","title":{"rendered":"Frances Tiafoe reflects on Althea Gibson’s legacy: ‘I want to pay it forward’ | ATP Tour"},"content":{"rendered":"

ATP Tour
\n Tiafoe reflects on Althea Gibson’s legacy: ‘I want to pay it forward’ <\/p>\n

American pays tribute to Gibson, who broke tennis’ colour barrier in 1950<\/p>\n

August 29, 2025<\/p>\n

\"Frances<\/p>\n

Maddie Meyer\/Getty Images<\/p>\n

Frances Tiafoe is a two-time semi-finalist at the US Open.
\n By Arthur Kapetanakis<\/p>\n

As the US Open<\/a> celebrates the 75th anniversary of Althea Gibson breaking tennis’ colour barrier at the 1950 U.S. National Championships, Frances Tiafoe<\/a> is among many Black tennis stars eager to continue her legacy.<\/p>\n

After his second-round win on Wednesday at the USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center, Tiafoe reflected on how Gibson paved the way for him and many of his peers.<\/p>\n

“It’s incredible. What a legend, man,” he said, noting how Gibson set the stage for the likes of the Williams sisters, 2017 US Open<\/a> champion Sloane Stephens and 2023 winner Coco Gauff, among others.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“[Althea] was a true leader and an incredible person. Her and Arthur [Ashe], man,” the American continued. “So I’ve got hella love for both, and I wish I could be saying that to them personally, but obviously the circumstances… But man, if they’re over there watching us, I hope they’re smiling over us, because we’re doing some great stuff with that small opportunity [they gave us].”<\/p>\n

\"It<\/a><\/p>\n

Tiafoe also referenced Canadian teen Victoria Mboko, who won her first WTA 1000 title three weeks ago in Montreal. Answering a question about the growing African-American presence in tennis, Tiafoe explained what it means to him to be the son of Sierra Leonean immigrants.<\/p>\n

“For me, I sit in a different spot with it. Obviously, at the end of the day, yes, I’m African-American, but I’m African, right, and African-raised,” he shared. “So seeing someone like Mboko and Felix [Auger-Aliassime] and myself, Clervie [Ngounoue], that’s a whole different beast. You’ve got parents that are coming to try to make these kids’ lives, give them a chance better than they had. So I understand that, being the son of immigrants.<\/p>\n

“Ultimately, to be able to see so many people of colour do great things in a predominantly white sport, it’s tremendous. I think that brings unbelievable diversity to the game. I think that brings a totally different demographic for the game. I’m happy to be a small ounce of that, and young guys are looking up to me and wanting to be like that.<\/p>\n

“Obviously I had a ton of great examples before me and will have a bunch of people come after me. So I’m happy to be a part of it in my prime and see it grow and can’t wait to continue to see where it goes.\n<\/p>\n

“African-Americans in tennis, we’re at an all-time high right now. I mean, totally killing it.”<\/p>\n

Read the full story at USOpen.org<\/a><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"ATP Tour Tiafoe reflects on Althea Gibson’s legacy: ‘I want to pay it forward’ American pays tribute to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":102392,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[38],"tags":[101,118,56,54,55],"class_list":{"0":"post-102391","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-tennis","8":"tag-sports","9":"tag-tennis","10":"tag-uk","11":"tag-united-kingdom","12":"tag-unitedkingdom"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/102391","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=102391"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/102391\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/102392"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=102391"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=102391"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=102391"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}