Tiafoe back home, Williams returns to the court as D.C. Open begins

Frances Tiafoe is back in the District, and is someone who can truly find joy amid the chaos that being the face of his home tournament entails.

“Everywhere I go, it’s like a long homecoming,” the Hyattsville native said. “I know everyone from security and everyone on staff for so long, and everyone’s so excited to see me. A lot of ‘I’m proud of you’ and ‘Keep going’ … a lot of love like that. But yeah, just get bulldozed everywhere I go, which is kind of fun.”

After a career-best quarterfinal performance on the clay of Roland-Garros but an early second-round Wimbledon exit, Tiafoe does not need an excuse to get up for the D.C. Open, beginning Monday at Rock Creek Park in Northwest.

“I come out here, it’s do or die. I have that mindset,” said Tiafoe, who still seeks a title in his home tournament. “I snuck into this event. I have no more motivation than to want to see my name on the stadium.”

After running concurrently with the Paris Olympics last year —  which caused a thinning of the field as many chose to compete for their home countries — this year’s Washington draw is arguably the strongest in tournament history.

Six Grand Slam champions and a combined nine top 10 players on the ATP and WTA Tours will descend on the District this year. For the men, half of the top 10 is here, led by top seed Taylor Fritz, the world No. 4 and a Wimbledon semifinalist. Following the American in the seedings are the world Nos. 7-10: Lorenzo Musetti, Holger Rune, Ben Shelton, and Andrey Rublev, respectively.

Much of the local attention will again be on Tiafoe, a Hyattsville native, who is seeded sixth. The beefed-up field means that last year’s runner-up Flavio Cobolli and Shelton potentially await in Tiafoe’s portion of the draw.

“I’m home, I’m comfortable. It’s hard court. It’s hot. Ball is jumping around. Ultimately I know for me it’s like one last push, You go from here all the way through New York, it’s like one last push,” Tiafoe said of the run-up to next month’s U.S. Open. “And ultimately, I hate to say it, but it’s the tournaments I care about the most.”

Much of the national attention, though, will surround a rare on-court sighting of one of the legends of the game.

“I feel like I have a joke with [tournament director] Mark [Ein] every year,” said Venus Williams. “He’s like, ‘I have a wild card for you.’ Yeah, maybe I’ll come.”

The 45-year-old and seven-time Grand Slam champion finally took Ein up on his offer.

“This time, I had been hitting the ball. And of course, I love the game and the hard courts. It’s my favorite surface, what I feel comfortable on,” Williams said. “So all those different factors.”

Williams will play her first match since the 2024 Miami Open 16 months ago against compatriot Peyton Stearns in the first round.

“I’m just here for now, and who knows? Maybe there’s more,” said Williams. “Like I said, I hold my cards close, but at the moment, I’m focused just on this. I haven’t played in a year. There is no doubt I can play tennis, but obviously coming back to play matches, it takes time to get in the swing of things.”

Williams will also play doubles with D.C. native Hailey Baptiste, into the top 50 for the first time after a career year that saw her reach the fourth round at Roland-Garros and the third round at Wimbledon.

“It’s funny, literally two nights ago I was watching a video, because I went to the [Washington] Kastles one year with the [Washington Tennis and Education Foundation], and I got to play doubles with Venus there,” Baptiste said. “I think I was four or five years old.”

Ironically, they’ll play in the first round against a similar tandem of a D.C. native in Clervie Ngounoue and a player nearing the end of their career in Genie Bouchard, who recently announced she’ll retire after her home tournament in Montreal later this month. 

Both Baptiste and Ngounoue, like thousands of women of color across the country, cite Williams and her sister, Serena, as their tennis inspirations.

“It’s incredible, actually. That was not what I thought would happen in my life,” Williams said of her legacy. “As a young person, I wanted to play the game, be a champion. I loved the game so much, I didn’t realize that it would be so much bigger than myself.”

The women’s draw is led by 2019 D.C. champion Jessica Pegula, who as the top seed will have a bye into the second round. Fellow American Emma Navarro, 2022 Wimbledon champion Elena Rybakina, and Denmark’s Clara Tauson follow Pegula as seeds and also have byes.

All 16 seeded players in the 64-entrant men’s draw have byes into the second round. Unseeded players of note that will begin play in the first round include American Reilly Opelka, 2023 D.C. champion Dan Evans, and fan-favorite Gael Monfils, who will team with two-time Washington singles winner Nick Kyrgios in doubles.

There will not be a repeat champion on either side this year. Defending men’s champion Sebastian Korda will miss the tournament while recovering from a stress fracture, and defending women’s champion Paula Badosa is out with a lower back injury.