The Junior Tennis Champions Center in College Park is recognized as the best training center for tennis in the nation.
When Francis Tiafoe was just 2 years old, his father Constant, a tennis center maintenance worker, brought him and his twin brother to a fitness room for their naps while he performed his duties around the center. These boys grew up at this tennis center, learning to walk to the soundtrack of bouncing tennis balls and screeching sneakers.
Now Tiafoe, 16, is the No. 2 junior world tennis champion, using the same facility he napped in as a kid as his school and training center.
“We are very proud of him because he’s just a part of the group,” said Vesa Pönkkä, senior director of tennis at the Junior Tennis Champions Center. “He has been here since he learned how to walk, so this is his home, basically.”
This year, Tiafoe won the Easter Bowl and the Orange Bowl, the first player since 1979 to do so. He also went into the United States Tennis Association International Spring Championships as the top seed in his division before falling to then-No. 2-seed Naoki Nakagaw of Bradenton, Fla.
“I never get satisfied really, just wanna keep working hard and get better every day,” Tiafoe said. “[The] biggest goal for me is to win the U.S. Open in a couple years.”
The tennis facility, which was named the 2013 USTA Facility of the Year, is located near the College Park Metro Station and offers high performance training to students on a full- or part-time basis. Celebrating its 15th anniversary this year, the center now has 50 full-time student-athletes, including Tiafoe, who spend half their day training on the court or in fitness and half their day in the classroom.
Because Constant Tiafoe worked at the tennis center for 11 years, Francis Tiafoe was given free tuition at the tennis center. Other full-time student-athletes pay about $36,000 a year. Part-time athletes pay between $15,000 and $18,000 a year, said Marco Impeduglia, the center’s program manager.
Constant said he teaches his son to recognize the great opportunity to attend a nationally recognized tennis center for free, and after sweating through three or four T-shirts a day, or “five if it’s a really tough day,” Tiafoe said he works hard during his time there.
Outside of their designated 30-minute lunchtime, “they really don’t have a break,” Impeduglia said.
Although this environment might seem overwhelming from the outside, CEO Ray Benton said the students enrolled at the tennis center have a unique set of goals. Working with these driven students is his favorite part of the job.
“You’re not only with kids; we’re with an unusual group of kids. They are very highly directed; they have great work ethics, and they are very ambitious,” Benton said. “They want to get into the best schools in the country. Some of them want to turn pro, so they have to be mature, and they have to work really hard.”
Pönkkä said he attributes Tiafoe’s successes to his ability to compete without any fear.
“There’s very few tennis players in the world who plays without any fear. He has no fear when he plays,” Pönkkä said. “He has no fear of winning or losing, and that’s why he can always play his very best under pressure. That’s the number one thing.”
Instructors at the tennis center aim to teach their students to exercise humility and hard work, Pönkkä said.
“Tennis is the game of mistakes. It gives you perspective that even if you do everything right, you still might lose and the only thing you can do is you can keep on going,” Pönkkä said. “It’s just the simple life lessons that I think have a lot of value.”
Full-time students are required to do at least 30 hours of community outreach, coaching and mentoring each year. The Community Outreach program was started in 2009 to introduce tennis to underserved youth in Prince George’s County with the program “Advantage Prince George’s” and in Washington with “Game On!”
“I have been in this type of work so long that I have my former players that are doctors, lawyers, you name it,” Pönkkä said. “It’s great because I see that what we did when they were young, those years, had something to do for them to be very successful later.”
Constant Tiafoe said he chose to enroll his son in the College Park-based program because he wanted him to grow up in an environment that not only pushed him physically, but also taught him important character traits.
“It’s the way the place is set up. This is not like any other tennis facility that I’ve seen,” he said. “It starts to the CEO all the way down; everything is disciplined. For you to achieve anything here you’ve got to work hard, and I mean very hard.”
Francis Tiafoe didn’t always push himself to his limits; it took time, said Misha Kouznetsov, his senior coach. As Tiafoe grew up, Kouznetsov noticed his work ethic improve to about a “‘B+’ or ‘A-.’”
Outside of practice, Kouznetsov also serves as Tiafoe’s mentor and friend. They have gone bowling together and to the movies, and Tiafoe has stayed at his house before tournaments.
“We’re like family,” Kouznetsov said.
Tiafoe said growing up at the tennis center has allowed him to develop close relationships with his teammates and coaches.
“I’m really close with everyone here, and I know everyone really well,” Tiafoe said. “I respect everyone here, and they all want the best for me, and I think this helps my improvement.”
A.J. Catanzariti, a senior at the tennis center, is one of Tiafoe’s training partners, and said they bonded on and off the court.
“We’re a good fit for each other. The way we both like taking control of the point and taking the tempo. So when we drill, it’s ideal,” Catanzariti said. “We’re like brothers. Whether it’s on-court or off the court we talk about anything. Whether it’s like girls, tennis matches, anything.”
On the weekends, Tiafoe said he likes to hang out with friends and “forget about tennis” and school for a little. But each week, he goes back to the tennis center for training, focused on his professional goal.
“Francis is not like normal kids because he started getting really good at 7 years old, so everybody is kind of concentrated on him with what to do and what not to do,” Constant Tiafoe said. “And he’s a good listener so everything works fine with me. He decided this is what he wants to do so no distraction, it’s all tennis with him … because he grew up right at the academy.”
