When Frances Tiafoe won the biggest title of his career at Halle in the lead-up to Wimbledon, he was, naturally, overcome with joy.
Heading into his final with Taylor Fritz, the 28-year-old had claimed three ATP Tour titles but all of them had come at the 250 level.
He was 0-3 in ATP 500 finals and 0-1 in Masters 1000 finals. But last Sunday, Tiafoe would not be denied against his compatriot, easing to a 6-4 6-4 victory.
The former US Open semi-finalist also secured his first win over Fritz since their first meeting back in 2016, with his countryman still holding a 7-2 head to head lead.
Following his momentous triumph, Tiafoe said, “I’ve lost a lot of 500 finals. I’ve lost a lot of finals in my career. This is big.
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“I just want to say one of my favourite scriptures: The pain that you’re feeling does not compare to the joy that is coming. Obviously, that has been proven very true.
“A couple of weeks ago, I had one of the toughest losses of my career at the French Open, and to come back and have a good week in Stuttgart and win here for my biggest title, beating the players I did, it’s a huge testimony to that quote. It’s something I’ve been living by.”
Tiafoe added, “I returned really well. I had no troubles on my serve the whole match, and it just feels good to get this done. I played a clean match, but I had to.
“He’s [Fritz] a hell of a player and a hell of a competitor too. I knew he was going to make it hard out there at the end and I played some great tennis. Luck was on my way a little bit.”
Tiafoe is the 17th seed at Wimbledon, where he will face Frenchman and world No 51 Terence Atmane in the first round.
While he may be confident fresh off his Halle triumph, there is a graveyard of champions who haven’t translated their success in Germany to SW19.
In fact, something known as the ‘Halle curse’ has been plaguing many past champions since 2011.
For the past 15 years, the likes of Philipp Kohlschreiber, Tommy Haas, Florian Mayer, Borna Coric, Ugo Humbert, Hubert Hurkacz and Alexander Bublik have all won the title in Halle… before losing in round one at Wimbledon.
In that period, only 20-time major winner Roger Federer and world No 1 Jannik Sinner have overcome that ‘curse’.
Since that hoodoo’s inception, the Swiss won Halle in 2013, 2014, 2015, 2017, and 2019 and never fell in the first round at Wimbledon, while 2024 champion Sinner made it to the quarter-finals of the grass court major that year.
Whether Tiafoe will fall victim to that curse at this year’s Wimbledon remains to be seen.
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