Frances Tiafoe had a look of shock and bewilderment on his face when he came off the court at Arthur Ashe Stadium.
No, it didn’t have anything to do with his match against Yoshihito Nishioka — Tiafoe cruised to a first-round win at the US Open on Monday 6-3, 7-6 (6), 6-3 — but rather had to do with the new haircut of his friend and fellow competitor Carlos Alcaraz.
The US Open posted a video of a short clip of Tiafoe seeing Alcaraz’s new cut with a less-than-approving look.
Alcaraz was sporting a new buzzcut when the American tennis star saw him.
“Yeah, it’s horrible. It’s terrible,” Tiafoe said when asked about the clip during his post-match press conference.
But the jokes didn’t stop there when a reporter asked if Tiafoe would make such a big change during a Grand Slam tournament, risking messing with his mojo.
“I mean, it’s definitely terrible. He’s my guy though. It’s funny. I looked at him and I was like, ‘I guess you’re aerodynamic,’” he said. “Juan Carlos ‘Mosquito’ was laughing. He was like, Yeah, he’s faster than he already was. I was like, Well, that’s a problem. Yeah, I don’t know who told him that it’s good. I don’t know who told him to do that, but it’s terrible. From a guy who gets haircuts week in, week out, and prides myself on good haircuts, it’s horrendous.
“At the end of the day, it’s Carlos, and that’s my guy. But yeah, he needs to get with me. He needs to get with me for sure.”
The new cut is a stark contrast to what Alcaraz typically rocks, and it was only a week since he had hair while competing at the Cincinnati Open.
However, the new look may not have been entirely his idea after a clip of him showed the Spaniard talking to golf star Rory McIlroy and telling him that he “just got a haircut that I struggled with. I had to start fresh.”
McIlroy seemed to approve of the cut better than Tiafoe.
[Notigroup Newsroom in collaboration with other media outlets, with information from the following sources]
