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Frances Tiafoe recently cleared the air surrounding him after missing a flight to China for the 2023 Shanghai Masters earlier on Wednesday (October 4).
Tiafoe, ranked 13th in the world, arrived in the city late for the eighth ATP Masters 1000 tournament of the year. The American recently sat down for a segment with the ATP tour, where he straightened out some of the details behind the aforementioned botch-up.
Frances Tiafoe disclosed during the interaction that he had accidentally gone to the Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport in Washington D.C., when his flight was actually supposed to depart from the Washington Dulles International Airport.
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He attributed an early start and the fact that he was tired from the day before to the mix-up between the two airports, which are 25 miles away from each other.
"Yeah, so I missed my, well... I went to the wrong airport coming here. I was super tired, had an 8 a.m. flight, I was leaving around 5:30 going to the airport. We have two airports here in DC, the international one, DCA, and the other one, Dulles," Tiafoe said.
"And I went to DCA when I was supposed to go to Dulles and I missed the flight, so I had to fly the following day," he added.
During the segment, Frances Tiafoe was also informed about how his compatriot Taylor Fritz found it funny that he had gone to the wrong airport by mistake.
"Depends if he went to the right airport or not... I mean, I’ll give him sh*t when he gets here, but I feel like when he misses his flight, the last thing he wants is me texting him and making fun of him," Fritz said in a previous segment by the ATP.
All that the World No. 13 had to say in defense was that it was typical for him to mix up the two airports in Washington D.C.
"Yeah, because it would happen to me, that's the thing. It was pretty funny," he said.
Frances Tiafoe has endured a mixed season on the ATP tour in 2023
Frances Tiafoe, meanwhile, has had a mixed season on the ATP tour in 2023. Even though he made his debut in the men's top 10 rankings in June, the American has been a shadow of his 2022 self.
The 25-year-old has dropped 17 of his 38 singles matches this year so far. The American also failed to defend his semifinal points from last year's US Open, succumbing to the unseeded Ben Shelton in the last eight.
Having said that, he has still managed to win a title on each of the prevalent surfaces on the main tour: the 2023 United Cup (hardcourt), the U.S. Men's Clay Court Championships (clay), and the Stuttgart Open (grass).
Frances Tiafoe will open his 2023 Shanghai Masters campaign in a blockbuster first-round encounter against World No. 59 Lorenzo Sonego.
The American will be eager to overturn a 1-2 head-to-head record against the Italian, who beat him handily during their last meeting at this year's Miami Open.
