Frances Tiafoe hung his head as he sat on his chair after being broken in the fourth round of his Wimbledon match against Cameron Norrie. Tiafoe appeared defeated, even though he wasn't playing poorly. Norrie was simply getting the better of him.
Tiafoe is one of the most-liked players on the ATP tour. He will have fans supporting him no matter where he goes, but not so much on Wednesday at Wimbledon. Norrie, after all, was playing in front of his home crowd, just 29 years old but seemingly closer to the end of his career than the beginning.
The Brit has been somewhat successful in London before. He reached the semifinals in 2022, exciting the UK and perhaps preparing to burn his name into the memory of every British tennis fan. But he eventually lost to Novak Djokovic in four sets. No shame there.
Cameron Norrie defeats Frances Tiafoe in the second round of Wimbledon 2025
Frances Tiafoe has the athletic ability to succeed on grass and the serve to back that up, but his best result has been reaching the fourth round at Wimbledon. He had taken the first set from Norrie 6-4, but the huge-serving Brit bounced back to take sets two and three 6-4 6-3.
Being broken and trailing 3-4, Tiafoe's body language seemed to say what most people were likely thinking: He was beaten. Instead, the American proved he wasn't quite ready to quit. In the next game, he took three straight points from Norrie and eventually got the break back.
Both players were serving exceedingly well, each with more than 15 aces but few double faults. They were also playing efficient tennis with nearly double the number of winners compared to unforced errors. But Norrie had been the better player over the last two-plus sets, and Tiafoe appeared to be crumbling a bit, even though he got a break of Norrie.
It appeared to be only a matter of time before the well-liked Norrie defeated the beloved Tiafoe, sending fans home sad and happy, but perhaps with a tinge of bittersweetness on both sides.
At 5-all, Tiafoe hit several horrible shots in his service game, and Norrie got another break. He only had to hold serve to take the final set 7-5 and finish off the match. He did so easily and will move into the third round for the fourth time.