The minor grip adjustment that has made a major difference for Frances Tiafoe

One of the secrets of Frances Tiafoe’s great US Open campaign lies in the handle of his racquet. Changing the way he grips it when returning his opponents’ serves is paying dividends this fortnight, and as a result he is in the quarter-finals. The small adjustment the American has made has been causing his opponents problems, and it has made him a better returner.

So, what exactly has he changed? His Argentine coach, Jordi Arconada, explained to ATPTour.com.

“He’s someone who, specifically on the forehand return, at the last moment changes his grip and he likes to block a lot, and that’s something we’re trying to stop him doing,” he said.

Before this North American hard-court swing, an almost continental grip was the one he preferred for returning, but this limited him if the server fired at his forehand. The result was that he was not always able to comfortably hit a shot that, under normal circumstances, he executes with more of a western grip.

The addition of David Witt to his coaching team in July led to a change in that regard.

“The idea with David is for him to start the return with a forehand grip, and for him to be mentally prepared for the serve to come to that side,” adds Arconada. “If he does that and they serve to his backhand he can change quickly and more easily. The level of his backhand return is very high. On the other hand, if he has to change to the forehand at the last second it’s slower or he simply doesn’t do it and blocks. Compared to the way we were doing it, it’s really improved his return, above all on the forehand.”

A few days ago, Ben Shelton got some first-hand experience of the change. After losing to Tiafoe in round three, he said it was the best returning he had faced in a match since he started playing on tour.

Frances’ numbers in Sunday’s match against Alexei Popyrin, whom he beat 6-4, 7-6(3), 2-6, 6-3, also tell a story of some quality returning. As well as breaking on three of his five opportunities, he also connected with four winners on the return to make it eight in the tournament (seventh best at this year’s event).

In addition, one of his best breaks came at a critical point in his match, when his opponent was serving for the second set and had three set points. "I’m very, very happy with that. I think the second set was a huge win for me. You know, it was 5-3, 40-0 on his serve. With how well he serves. That was really very important. Breaking there and then winning the set was huge,” explained Tiafoe, who has now climbed to No. 20 in the PIF ATP Rankings.

His new skills on the return have played an enormous role in all of this.

“I think the returns have been something I’ve been doing since I started with David, something he’s really focused on, without a doubt. You know, before we started, he would say: ‘Look, you’re too relaxed on your return games. We have to adjust that’. And now I’m returning much better...making the guys play,” Tiafoe explained a couple of days ago.

However, adapting to this new way of approaching games on the return has not been easy. Frances still has to make an effort to remember to grip the racquet differently when the time comes. Even in practice matches.

“Even when he’s playing practice sets you have to remind him, tell him: ‘Pay attention, pay attention.’ And he has to do it on both the first and second serves. On both he has to assume that the ball is coming to his forehand so that he uses the grip for that shot,” added Arconada.

“It’s been hard work and it’s still not 100 per cent there, but it’s helped him, especially on this surface. That’s why he’s returning so well.”

The Maryland native’s next opponent will be Grigor Dimitrov, against whom he has a 1-3 Lexus ATP Head2Head record. The Bulgarian, who won their most recent encounter (Wimbledon 2023), will hope for a repeat of that outcome when they face each other at Flushing Meadows. But on court, particularly when he is serving, perhaps he will have to make some changes of his own.