Latest / Bleacher Report / USA Star Frances Tiafoe on Texting KD, His Starting 5 of Tennis Players _ 2025 Roland-Garros

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USA Star Frances Tiafoe on Texting KD, His Starting 5 of Tennis Players _ 2025 Roland-Garros · Bleacher Report

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: I'm John Isner here with the Nothing Major.
• 0:02
  Speaker 2: Podcast, here at the Bleacher Report tesk.
• 0:05
  Speaker 1: He's already smiling.
• 0:07
  Speaker 2: Got the funniest dude on the ATP tour, Francis Tiaffo,
• 0:11
  Speaker 2: the American number fifteen seed, who is into the second
• 0:14
  Speaker 2: round here at roll on Garos, always smiling. As you
• 0:18
  Speaker 2: can see, he's laughing before you finish my intro. How
• 0:21
  Speaker 2: you doing, big Fox?
• 0:21
  Speaker 3: I'm doing well, man, I'm doing better. I'm here with
• 0:24
  Speaker 3: the big Is. I appreciate that.
• 0:26
  Speaker 2: Look, we're happy that you're into the second round, but truthfully,
• 0:28
  Speaker 2: we're not going to talk too much about your tennis.
• 0:30
  Speaker 3: All right, I love it.
• 0:32
  Speaker 2: You might prefer that. Yeah, you love other sports, especially
• 0:35
  Speaker 2: the NBA. You're a huge Lebron guy. Like that's your dude,
• 0:39
  Speaker 2: right mass Okay.
• 0:41
  Speaker 1: He tweeted at you.
• 0:43
  Speaker 3: Is that correct? All right?
• 0:44
  Speaker 2: You know a lot of NBA superstars Lebron included. Who
• 0:47
  Speaker 2: is the most famous NBA superstar in your contact list?
• 0:51
  Speaker 3: Right now?
• 0:51
  Speaker 2: What you say, Oh, we're not going to ask you,
• 0:53
  Speaker 2: not going to ask you to text or FaceTime that person?
• 0:58
  Speaker 2: But who is it?
• 1:00
  Speaker 3: Is it? I wish I but uh, I like sins
• 1:07
  Speaker 3: where you're doing it? Katie K. I said, you might
• 1:11
  Speaker 3: have kat Maryland, the Maryland connection.
• 1:13
  Speaker 1: Fellow m guy, you're very proud of where you're from.
• 1:17
  Speaker 3: Very Again.
• 1:18
  Speaker 2: I just said, I'm not going to put you on
• 1:20
  Speaker 2: the spot. But if you were to text or call
• 1:22
  Speaker 2: him right now, what do he get back to you?
• 1:24
  Speaker 3: I mean, what time is it? Right?
• 1:26
  Speaker 1: A little early? Maybe if you waited a few hours.
• 1:28
  Speaker 3: A few hours, I think you would answer.
• 1:30
  Speaker 1: Okay, I think what I get. You're safe.
• 1:34
  Speaker 2: We're not gonna put you on the spot. But that's great.
• 1:37
  Speaker 2: You love the NBA. We know that a lot of
• 1:39
  Speaker 2: the times when you practice, you're you're wearing a different NBA.
• 1:42
  Speaker 1: Jersey to practice with. I think that's awesome.
• 1:45
  Speaker 2: My question to you is do you have a jersey
• 1:47
  Speaker 2: of every every NBA team in your possession?
• 1:50
  Speaker 3: Actually, I don't think so. I'm close. I'm definitely really
• 1:54
  Speaker 3: missing I missed. I'm missing a Destroit. Yeah, I'm missing
• 2:01
  Speaker 3: the destroyed. I think Charlotte, Charlotte, I got one?
• 2:04
  Speaker 1: No, you got one, dude?
• 2:05
  Speaker 2: What do you mean I got Carlos I've forgotten about
• 2:09
  Speaker 2: I'm from North Carolina.
• 2:10
  Speaker 3: I forgot about that.
• 2:11
  Speaker 1: That's the most badass jersey there is.
• 2:13
  Speaker 3: I mean the Teals. It's so far, it's so good.
• 2:17
  Speaker 3: Ain't gotta win there, you beat Carlos.
• 2:22
  Speaker 1: That's my favorite jersey of.
• 2:24
  Speaker 3: Yours, exactly exactly. I think Deloit might be the only
• 2:27
  Speaker 3: one I'm missing, dude, honestly, NBA, if you're listening, if
• 2:31
  Speaker 3: you're listening, big a Piston.
• 2:34
  Speaker 2: Sweater, let's go as we talked about your A d
• 2:37
  Speaker 2: m V guy, your hometown team. You're an NBA fan,
• 2:40
  Speaker 2: like first and foremost, but you love the Wizards.
• 2:45
  Speaker 1: You're kind of on the on the struggle bus right now,
• 2:50
  Speaker 1: give us three moves that you would make to fix
• 2:54
  Speaker 1: the Washington Wizards GM, Big.
• 2:56
  Speaker 3: Folks, GM, Big folks. So I'm going we already started
• 2:59
  Speaker 3: to doing pretty well. Get Middleton and get out Ben Wall.
• 3:07
  Speaker 3: He got it.
• 3:09
  Speaker 1: He can't keep on the script.
• 3:10
  Speaker 3: Dude. Why he's the best, Why everyone loves him. But yeah,
• 3:15
  Speaker 3: I would. I think our next thing is to get
• 3:17
  Speaker 3: rid of, get rid of Jordan Poole. I love him.
• 3:21
  Speaker 3: I think we can get a lot for him. He
• 3:22
  Speaker 3: had a really good season last year. He was in depth.
• 3:25
  Speaker 3: I like that. Yeah, yeah, we need to and this
• 3:28
  Speaker 3: is coming out. I love you this, I love you
• 3:30
  Speaker 3: Jordan and then get it big and then after that.
• 3:33
  Speaker 3: I think those are kind of only two things we need.
• 3:35
  Speaker 3: I mean, the last thing would have been a pick,
• 3:36
  Speaker 3: but we missed out on course obviously. So yeah, so yeah,
• 3:40
  Speaker 3: so those are my.
• 3:43
  Speaker 1: About the pick. The Dallas Mavericks had a one point one.
• 3:49
  Speaker 1: What is that about?
• 3:50
  Speaker 3: Dude?
• 3:51
  Speaker 2: They trade Luca and now they're getting gifted Cooper Flagg
• 3:55
  Speaker 2: assuming he's the number one pick.
• 3:57
  Speaker 3: It makes sense to me, Adam, So I love you
• 3:58
  Speaker 3: man that it makes.
• 3:59
  Speaker 1: Sense exactly, and I live in Dallas now.
• 4:02
  Speaker 2: But that's a little fishy, right, you can hook up
• 4:05
  Speaker 2: the hornets of the Wizards.
• 4:07
  Speaker 3: I mean, Capitol, what do we do?
• 4:13
  Speaker 2: Keep it on the NBA theme here? NBA level starting five,
• 4:17
  Speaker 2: but with tennis players. We'll go current tennis players. Okay,
• 4:21
  Speaker 2: I appreciate that.
• 4:22
  Speaker 1: Thank you.
• 4:24
  Speaker 2: Let's let's hear your starting five. Let's start with the one's.
• 4:27
  Speaker 2: We'll go all the way down to the five.
• 4:28
  Speaker 3: I'm gonna go Temmy Paul the one. Okay, he plays
• 4:31
  Speaker 3: good D. Two plays good D and pretty well, let's go.
• 4:34
  Speaker 3: Let's go to Nasty coconakas at the two.
• 4:37
  Speaker 1: Okay, hellion Ka Kanagi's hurt right now, right.
• 4:41
  Speaker 3: Now, but yeah, he can play Riley at the five.
• 4:45
  Speaker 1: Okay, Riley at the five.
• 4:46
  Speaker 3: Yeah, the big man.
• 4:47
  Speaker 2: We had him on that, We had him here on
• 4:48
  Speaker 2: on on set six foot eleven, Riley of Pelka.
• 4:50
  Speaker 3: Then I'll go Nick at the four, and then a.
• 4:53
  Speaker 1: Bit of an undersize four bit, maybe Nika the three.
• 4:57
  Speaker 1: Is he quick enough to be a three though, so
• 4:58
  Speaker 1: it's like, yes, your trick.
• 5:00
  Speaker 3: That's why I wanted to put him at a two.
• 5:02
  Speaker 3: Let's okay, let's put let's put a niggid to the three. Okay, yeah, yeah,
• 5:05
  Speaker 3: and then uh, you've got a four the four man.
• 5:09
  Speaker 1: You put yourself in on this team.
• 5:12
  Speaker 3: Your jump shots whacked.
• 5:16
  Speaker 1: You don't have a great jump shot.
• 5:18
  Speaker 2: Might look like you do, but don't you chose the
• 5:21
  Speaker 2: right sport.
• 5:24
  Speaker 3: More guy, man's more good at the at the four man,
• 5:29
  Speaker 3: man at the fourth. Tough, let's go, let's put a
• 5:33
  Speaker 3: let's put para card I've never.
• 5:34
  Speaker 2: Seen Oh yeah, but let's I've never seen himhoot, imagine.
• 5:38
  Speaker 3: You gotta magic, you can do perfect and he's actually
• 5:42
  Speaker 3: really athletic.
• 5:42
  Speaker 1: Crazy athletic backd that that's a good call.
• 5:51
  Speaker 3: G M P.
• 5:52
  Speaker 2: All right, now we're gonna switch to the NFL commander's guy,
• 5:58
  Speaker 2: great year, humongous. Here they got Jayden Daniels behind center,
• 6:02
  Speaker 2: total stud But here's a picture of you in a
• 6:07
  Speaker 2: Philadelphia Eagles hat. Can you explain to our viewers what
• 6:10
  Speaker 2: that is all about?
• 6:11
  Speaker 3: Big Fox?
• 6:13
  Speaker 1: What happened there?
• 6:14
  Speaker 3: So it was funny, man, God bless it. So Tommy
• 6:18
  Speaker 3: Paul huge Eagles fan and Ben and Eagles fans forever.
• 6:22
  Speaker 3: And you know, as our commanders started getting wins getting wins,
• 6:27
  Speaker 3: I'm like, yo, like, I can't wait to see you
• 6:29
  Speaker 3: in a NFC championship, not thinking we're actually gonna beat
• 6:31
  Speaker 3: the earlier in this season. This is like week three, yeah,
• 6:34
  Speaker 3: and now we won four games in a row. I'm like, man,
• 6:37
  Speaker 3: we're number one in the division right now, Like where
• 6:40
  Speaker 3: are you all at? Like what you're doing? Then then
• 6:42
  Speaker 3: they beat us once, We beat them once, and he's like,
• 6:44
  Speaker 3: look a NFC championship. Whoever wins this game, the losers
• 6:49
  Speaker 3: gotta wear a hat and rock the whole thing in
• 6:52
  Speaker 3: any wells like the whole thing. So I'm super confident.
• 6:56
  Speaker 3: He goes to the game. I go to the game,
• 6:58
  Speaker 3: and I say I had my Oh yeah, yeah, both
• 7:00
  Speaker 3: were both both go to the game. Yes, I had
• 7:03
  Speaker 3: all my stuff in the car ready for him. Obviously
• 7:05
  Speaker 3: they dude, how.
• 7:06
  Speaker 2: Are you treated in Philly wearing your You're getting ripped,
• 7:11
  Speaker 2: You're getting because that's like I actually hear this like
• 7:13
  Speaker 2: danger no, no, no, no, it's like, don't wear the opposing
• 7:16
  Speaker 2: this jersey.
• 7:17
  Speaker 1: They gave me security at Lincoln Financial.
• 7:19
  Speaker 3: Think they gave me security because like they were like brutal.
• 7:23
  Speaker 3: Got out of the car. Yeah, you like going off, man,
• 7:28
  Speaker 3: what are you doing here? Get that red out of here?
• 7:30
  Speaker 3: And I was like, man, we're going We're going to
• 7:32
  Speaker 3: super Bowl. Driving back home in the fourth quarter stuck
• 7:40
  Speaker 3: in a bad move. But it was a great experience
• 7:42
  Speaker 3: and that's why I got to wear that sorry hat. Man,
• 7:45
  Speaker 3: that's an ugly hat. Is ugly. Green's a horrible color.
• 7:49
  Speaker 3: Like yeah, but Tommy got the last last, the last champs.
• 7:54
  Speaker 1: You guys out in the playoffs.
• 7:55
  Speaker 3: That that hurt, That hurt, and the fashion was brutal
• 7:57
  Speaker 3: to That.
• 7:58
  Speaker 2: Picture is going to live on forever. You and that
• 8:00
  Speaker 2: Eagles lid all right. US Open last year. You loved
• 8:04
  Speaker 2: the US soaping.
• 8:05
  Speaker 3: It's iconic.
• 8:06
  Speaker 1: That's your tournament.
• 8:07
  Speaker 2: Play a little clip here in one of your postmatch interviews.
• 8:10
  Speaker 2: This caught everyone by surprise, Big Foe. We did not
• 8:14
  Speaker 2: know you were such a big fan of Scandal.
• 8:17
  Speaker 3: Oh sorry sorry, Tony Goblin was in the crowd show.
• 8:23
  Speaker 3: I'm a huge fan of you, bro, me and my
• 8:26
  Speaker 3: girl you so Scandal all the time. I'm a huge
• 8:30
  Speaker 3: time bro. I gotta say that shut out to Tony Godwin.
• 8:34
  Speaker 2: Tony Goldwin, what elected I mean like we didn't no
• 8:38
  Speaker 2: one knew you'd be You'd go that nuts over him,
• 8:40
  Speaker 2: Like why why is it?
• 8:41
  Speaker 1: Is it that show or is it just him in general?
• 8:43
  Speaker 3: Or that that show? I would like to be my president, man, Like,
• 8:50
  Speaker 3: I absolutely lovely show. My girl got me hooked on it,
• 8:53
  Speaker 3: and I was like, if I ever meet him or
• 8:55
  Speaker 3: Kerry Waltington, who was also in it, I would go
• 8:58
  Speaker 3: absolutely nuts in the fact that he was there. My
• 9:00
  Speaker 3: girlfriend actually ran into them before the match, so it
• 9:02
  Speaker 3: was ironic that actually shouted him out. But yeah, that
• 9:05
  Speaker 3: was like that was like me seeing uh like Leo,
• 9:07
  Speaker 3: I was, I was super excited.
• 9:09
  Speaker 2: Yeah, it's like Big Foe, Center Court, the US Open
• 9:12
  Speaker 2: with celebrities and everywhere athletes Like you're going You're always
• 9:15
  Speaker 2: gonna play your best, aren't you.
• 9:17
  Speaker 3: You'll see you play the ball hit the middle of
• 9:19
  Speaker 3: the street.
• 9:21
  Speaker 1: Him and Kerry. I don't watch show. They were, they
• 9:23
  Speaker 1: were and they were the first lady. Was that the thing?
• 9:28
  Speaker 3: Or well? No, like he like he had he had
• 9:30
  Speaker 3: a girl and he.
• 9:31
  Speaker 2: That's called scandal. Let's call them a bit of a
• 9:34
  Speaker 2: power couple. Right there's also a power couple.
• 9:37
  Speaker 1: Right now going in tennis right now with Ben Shelton.
• 9:41
  Speaker 3: Young Americans. So happy you're bringing this up.
• 9:43
  Speaker 2: Ben Shelton and uh US soccer star Trinity Rodman. I
• 9:47
  Speaker 2: did not know this, but apparently you said you were
• 9:51
  Speaker 2: the one that set them up. But he says, no,
• 9:54
  Speaker 2: who's right.
• 9:55
  Speaker 3: So this is how this is how it goes. I'm like, yo, Trinity,
• 9:59
  Speaker 3: and y'all would be a like you killing it your space.
• 10:01
  Speaker 3: She's obviously killing it. She's got the whole background. Like
• 10:05
  Speaker 3: as we're talking about joking about it, he follows on
• 10:07
  Speaker 3: Instagram like two weeks later and sends it to me
• 10:10
  Speaker 3: and he's like, yo, she followed me and send me
• 10:12
  Speaker 3: like an I emoji and I was like okay, And
• 10:15
  Speaker 3: then they started talking and he's like, yo, I think
• 10:17
  Speaker 3: this is gonna kind of be a thing. And so
• 10:21
  Speaker 3: now obviously now they're off to the races and you know,
• 10:23
  Speaker 3: like it's all it's all history written. But it's funny
• 10:26
  Speaker 3: because I want to I want to give him absolute
• 10:28
  Speaker 3: crap because I texted him and he killed a I
• 10:32
  Speaker 3: don't know if you saw that. He killed like a
• 10:33
  Speaker 3: boyfriend test about her like they asked crazy questions about
• 10:37
  Speaker 3: her and come up and I sent it to both
• 10:39
  Speaker 3: of them. I was like, hey, I don't know if
• 10:40
  Speaker 3: I would be able to do that, but my girlfriend
• 10:41
  Speaker 3: about ten years that's a lot of respect. Both of
• 10:45
  Speaker 3: them doesn't answer, They don't answer. He gets one win
• 10:48
  Speaker 3: on shocks Ray and he forgets about the little people.
• 10:50
  Speaker 3: So I just want to put that out there. Gets
• 10:53
  Speaker 3: one win on open Up on Sunday.
• 10:59
  Speaker 1: Put it an American.
• 11:02
  Speaker 3: Night session on Sunday. Sunday is not a foreign thing
• 11:05
  Speaker 3: for us, but.
• 11:05
  Speaker 2: Sunday is very popular for American players to play.
• 11:09
  Speaker 1: But the night sessions.
• 11:10
  Speaker 3: Another level level.
• 11:12
  Speaker 2: Yeah, speaking of day, this is Rafa and Adulph's court.
• 11:17
  Speaker 1: They celebrated him just the other day.
• 11:20
  Speaker 3: Bad loss. You had to him here?
• 11:21
  Speaker 2: Well, yeah, I lost to him here, I think, Yeah,
• 11:23
  Speaker 2: it was one of his ninety four wins on that
• 11:26
  Speaker 2: on that court or something like that.
• 11:27
  Speaker 1: You beat him at the US Open. How many times
• 11:30
  Speaker 1: have you played Rafa?
• 11:31
  Speaker 3: That was our third So yeah, it was a lucky
• 11:33
  Speaker 3: three there.
• 11:34
  Speaker 2: Yeah, that was your first win for three tries. You
• 11:36
  Speaker 2: beat him in a night session at the US Open.
• 11:39
  Speaker 2: What do you think he's meant to our sport in
• 11:41
  Speaker 2: this tournament rolling girls specifically?
• 11:44
  Speaker 3: Yeah, I mean, you know, we'll talking about this event
• 11:46
  Speaker 3: since we're here. I think he is this event, you know.
• 11:49
  Speaker 3: I mean the ceremony was absolute class. You know, unfortunately
• 11:53
  Speaker 3: I had to play during that time. But he's such
• 11:55
  Speaker 3: a legend in every facet, the way he went about it,
• 11:57
  Speaker 3: how well he competed, how nice of a guy he
• 11:59
  Speaker 3: was to everybody, to you know, the towel guys in
• 12:03
  Speaker 3: the locker room, to every opponent. It was. It was unbelievable.
• 12:06
  Speaker 3: We did it for fifteen twenty years, and yeah, and
• 12:08
  Speaker 3: then what he meant to sports in general. I don't
• 12:10
  Speaker 3: think there's a tougher task to beat him on this court,
• 12:13
  Speaker 3: and I don't. I don't think it's a better competitor
• 12:16
  Speaker 3: in any sport than Raffa. So it was awesome we've
• 12:18
  Speaker 3: shared a court with him and be able to play
• 12:20
  Speaker 3: him obviously at the US Open where I got to play, uh,
• 12:23
  Speaker 3: you know, the three biggest leggings I got to play,
• 12:27
  Speaker 3: I get to play Rafa Federer and John Isner. So
• 12:29
  Speaker 3: it was kind of capping me off, no, but no,
• 12:34
  Speaker 3: but seriously it was it was It was amazing and
• 12:36
  Speaker 3: that's the results kind of relevant just to night and
• 12:38
  Speaker 3: that the whole atmosphere and was pretty cool. But it
• 12:42
  Speaker 3: is pretty cool to see the guy and be like, yeah,
• 12:43
  Speaker 3: last time we played, that's good. You always have that.
• 12:47
  Speaker 2: He won fourteen titles here, Yeah, Okay, where do you
• 12:50
  Speaker 2: put that in terms of not tennis records, sports records
• 12:55
  Speaker 2: as far as being unbroken, Like do you put that
• 12:58
  Speaker 2: at the top of the list of just sports records
• 13:00
  Speaker 2: that do you think will never be broken? His fourteen
• 13:03
  Speaker 2: titles at roll on Garrols.
• 13:06
  Speaker 3: It was kind of explaining family members, like if you
• 13:08
  Speaker 3: played the Franks fourteen times, you had an incredible career,
• 13:11
  Speaker 3: So to win it fourteen times is like, I don't
• 13:14
  Speaker 3: know how, like what record is harder than that?
• 13:16
  Speaker 2: Like I was thinking there's a lot of like, you know,
• 13:19
  Speaker 2: Lebron's got the points record, right, think it happened, I think,
• 13:23
  Speaker 2: but that happening before.
• 13:25
  Speaker 3: Before that, before this, I agree the points record will
• 13:27
  Speaker 3: probably be the closest, closest second, because yeah, that's a
• 13:30
  Speaker 3: lot of durability and buckets every night.
• 13:33
  Speaker 1: A lot of durability.
• 13:34
  Speaker 3: Here to fourteen of these, Yeah, let's put those like
• 13:38
  Speaker 3: one one, one, A, one B.
• 13:39
  Speaker 2: All right, I like that, I like that, I got
• 13:41
  Speaker 2: I got one more for you. We've asked everyone this.
• 13:43
  Speaker 2: You give us three names on the men's side. You
• 13:46
  Speaker 2: cannot name yourself. You can't name number one seed Center
• 13:50
  Speaker 2: or number two c Carlos Aucres. Three names that you
• 13:53
  Speaker 2: think could win this year's roll on Garrols.
• 13:56
  Speaker 3: Okay, I think you gotta put most Seti in there.
• 14:00
  Speaker 3: How well he's been playing, you gotta put let's put Mussetti.
• 14:07
  Speaker 3: Let's put Arthur Feast.
• 14:08
  Speaker 1: Okay, that one.
• 14:10
  Speaker 3: Yet he's been playing, he's been playing really well. Last
• 14:14
  Speaker 3: one crazy wild card out here. Let's go. Let's go Draper.
• 14:22
  Speaker 1: He's he's been a popular choice.
• 14:23
  Speaker 3: Go Draper. I mean, you know, if you can't pick
• 14:26
  Speaker 3: those guys, why not? Why not Draper? I mean he's
• 14:29
  Speaker 3: he I mean, what do you mean, finals, finals in Madrid,
• 14:32
  Speaker 3: Final Madrid. I mean he's he's good. Feel bad it
• 14:36
  Speaker 3: ain't say Casper because he has made a couple of
• 14:37
  Speaker 3: finals here, but yeah, I got it. The other guys
• 14:40
  Speaker 3: came to my head first all that. Thank you guys,