I was brought to tears after witnessing a very special moment in tennis the other day.
First, the backstory.
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In 2022, Frances Tiafoe became the first Black American male to reach the US Open semifinals since Arthur Ashe in 1972. That’s a 50-year gap.
It was Tiafoe’s first grand slam semifinal of his career, and coincidentally it was his opponent’s first as well. His opponent was only 19 years old at the time.
These two went on to play a match for the ages. Michelle Obama was in attendance.
The match lasted four hours and 19 minutes, and Frances lost in a heartbreaking fifth set.
He struggled to get through his on-court interview after the match. Through tears he said, “This one really hurts. This one really, really hurts.”
His opponent, went on to win his first grand slam final. Between then and the time of this writing, he has won six more. Carlos Alcaraz is a tennis phenom. But this post isn’t about him.
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Two years after that epic match, Frances got back to the US Open semifinal again.
This time, against fellow American Taylor Fritz, Frances took a lead in the match going up two sets to one.
Fritz fought back in the latter stages and again Frances ended up losing in the fifth set.
The first words in his post-match press conference were, “Oh man ... it’s tough, it’s really, really tough to swallow. This one’s gonna hurt really, really bad.”
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This year, Frances was looking really good to start the tournament.
Then, in the quarterfinal, he faced an in-form young American. His good friend, Alex Michelsen.
Alex was dominant from the start.
About two hours and 25 minutes into the match, Alex was serving for a straight-sets victory. He was about to get into his first grand slam semifinal. A place that Frances had been, twice before.
But the moment got to him. Alex couldn’t hold his serve.
Frances ended up making the biggest comeback of his career, and another two hours and 15 minutes later, Frances won the match. Frances was in his third US Open semifinal.
What brought me to tears was what happened in the moments that followed Frances’ win.
Just watch this 30-second clip.
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In a post-match interview that Frances did with ESPN, he said something that has stuck with me:
“Everything you want is on the other side of hard.”
Two days after this, Frances played against fellow American, Ben Shelton.
They became the first two Black men in the Open Era to face each other in a Grand Slam semifinal.
Again, Frances fought hard and lost.
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This got me thinking back to what Frances said about everything you want being on the other side of hard.
On first hearing this, it’s easy to think of this statement as a finality.
Face the hard thing, get past it, and you’ll get everything.
But this isn’t what actually happens, is it?
We face the hard thing, and then later, we have to face another hard thing.
It’s better to think Frances’ statement as more of a cycle.
Everything you want right now, is on the other side of hard.
Everything you want after that, will also be on the other side of hard.
And so on.
