HOUSTON (Jan. 12, 2023) – Fan favorite and world No. 17 Frances Tiafoe will be playing for a fifth time at River Oaks Country Club in the Fayez Sarofim & Co. U.S. Men’s Clay Court Championship, the tournament announced today. The ATP Tour event runs April 1-9.
“We are thrilled to welcome Frances back to River Oaks. Our fans love watching him and he loves playing here,” said Tournament Director Bronwyn Greer. “His energy is contagious and he is one of the stars on the ATP Tour.”
The American, who will turn 25 on Jan. 20, was a major factor in leading the U.S. to the United Cup title last week in Australia. He was a perfect 5-0 in singles matches as the U.S. won the mixed team event that featured 18 countries competing for the inaugural title.
A quarterfinalist in Houston last year, Tiafoe later reached the U.S. Open semifinals with thrilling wins over No. 3 Rafael Nadal and No. 11 Andre Rublev before falling to eventual champion Carlos Alcaraz in five sets. He followed that by reaching his second final of the year in Tokyo and the ATP Masters 1000 Paris quarterfinals, cutting his ranking by more than half from the beginning of 2022. Tiafoe has appeared in five ATP singles finals, with his lone title coming at Delray Beach in 2018. His first career final of any kind came at River Oaks in 2017 when he partnered with Dustin Brown to finish as doubles runner-up.
Tiafoe is seeded 16th at the year’s first Major, the Australian Open, which begins Sunday at 6 p.m. CT (Monday at 11 a.m. in Melbourne). He will face German Daniel Altmaier in the first round.
Tiafoe joins past champions Reilly Opelka (2022), Cristian Garin (2019) and John Isner (2013) along with J.J. Wolf as players who have been announced as returning to the event.
Tiafoe is one of many past U.S. Clay players who will be featured in the new Netflix series “Break Point.” Camera crews followed ATP and WTA players around the world throughout 2022 for a behind-the-scenes look at professional tennis and its personalities. The first five episodes start streaming on Jan. 13 ahead of the Australian Open. Another five episodes are scheduled to be released in June before Wimbledon, in which Tiafoe will be highlighted. In addition to Tiafoe, viewers will watch the tour lives of past U.S. Clay players Taylor Fritz, Nick Kyrgios and Casper Ruud unfold, as well as those of WTA players Iga Swiatek, Ons Jabeur, Aryna Sabalenka, Maria Sakkari and others.
Daily and West Grandstand season tickets for the U.S. Men’s Clay Championship are on sale now. To purchase or for more information, visit mensclaycourt.com/tickets.
