Homegrown tennis hero, Frances Tiafoe continues his quest to win his first grand slam tournament, defeating China’s Wu Yibing on Wednesday to move to 2-0 in the Wimbledon Championship. Through two matches at Wimbledon, Tiafoe has yet to lose a set.
Born in Hyattsville, Tiafoe has risen all the way to number ten in the world in men’s singles.
Already making it into the third round, Tiafoe will need to win five more matches to be crowned champion. Wimbledon is a single-elimination, seven round tournament that features 128 players. Ranked as the No. 10 seed, Tiafoe didn’t have to play another top 32 seed in the first two rounds.
The American’s toughest test yet will be on Saturday, when he will face No. 21 seeded Grigor Dimitrov. Like Tiafoe, Dimitrov has yet to drop a set so far at Wimbledon.
Hailing from Bulgaria, Dimitrov, 32, made it all the way to the semifinals at Wimbledon in 2014. Additionally, he has been ranked as high as world No. 3 in singles.
But Tiafoe has faced Dimitrov once before. The two clashed in the 2019 Australian Open, where the Maryland native won a highly contested four set match.
Last year at Wimbledon, Tiafoe made it all the way to the Round of 16 before falling. In order to make it to the fourth round, he will have to defeat the veteran Dimitrov.
More notes on Tiafoe’s quest in Wimbledon.
- The last time an American won the men’s singles championship at Wimbledon was Pete Sampras in 2000. Sampras won four straight championships at Wimbledon, a record setting stretch. Andy Roddick was the last American to make it to the finals in 2009 .
- Arthur Ashe remains the only African American man to win a singles championship at Wimbledon. If Tiafoe were to win the tournament in 2023, he would become the second.
