Grading Frances Tiafoe's 2025 ATP Season

Coming off a moderately successful 2024 season - a successful North American swing of a US Open semi-final and a Cincinnati Masters 1000 final, along with a 250 Houston finals appearance losing to fellow countryman Ben Shelton in three sets and pushing eventual Wimbledon champion Carlos Alcaraz to five sets - Tiafoe failed to recreate the hard-court success that had saved his prior seasons before.

To start the year off "Down Under," Tiafoe failed to win more than two matches at a tournament until the Houston 250 — more than three months into the season. This was shocking, considering how dangerous a player Tiafoe can be on hard courts.

Yet, he was unable to show his best tennis at the Happy Slam with two grueling back-to-back matches against Arthur Rinderknech and falling to Hungary's Fabian Maroszan.

While I wouldn't say those losses came from a dip in Tiafoe's level, it was more a result of what happens when the tour has a much higher level of parity than we have ever seen. And Tiafoe has even expressed these grievances.

Clay Court Resurgence

Unfortunately, Tiafoe was unable to carry on this momentum into the grass court season, but respectfully, most of his supporters were probably already looking past the latter quarter of the season: the North American hard-court swing.

Over the past few seasons, Tiafoe has made it known that his best tennis will always come out during this period of the tour. All events are on fast hard-court surfaces and back on his own home turf. However, those results somehow did not appear.

Granted, Tiafoe's first hard-court event was the Citi DC Open, where he lost to Shelton in three sets after a unforced error-ridden first-round affair against Alexander Kovacevic before swiftly dispatching Flavio Cobolli in the following round.

A back injury saw him pull out of Cincinnati, and with the US Open in a few weeks' time, it was sad but not surprising that he was not at his best to emulate one of the magical runs he made years before in Flushing Meadows.

Followed by a dismal Davis Cup showing and Asian Swing, a season that once highlighted resiliency ended in unforced error-laden play, revealing deeper issues that the Maryland native has to address. And to be fair, Tiafoe has addressed them so far after cleaning out his coaching staff and signaling to the tennis world that he is ready for that change.

Grade and Final Thoughts: B-

I landed on a B- because while this past season was extremely underwhelming, I am still very impressed with Tiafoe's Roland Garros run and understand that injuries held him back in ways that deserve grace. And to be candid, looking at his career holistically, Tiafoe, when playing his best at a consistent level, can win a Grand Slam. Period.