Hedge-fund billionaire Bill Ackman has amassed a fortune by recognizing potential, so it made perfect sense to pledge his financial support when he saw young Frances Tiafoe on a tennis court.
That belief in Tiafoe, the son of a tennis center janitor who had emigrated from Sierra Leone to the U.S., is starting to pay off. Tiafoe, now 17 and ranked No. 257 on the men’s ATP tennis tour, makes his U.S. Open debut Tuesday afternoon against Viktor Troicki of Serbia, the 22nd seed.
Ackman and Tiafoe met in 2013 at the Junior Tennis Champions Center in College Park, Maryland, where Constant Tiafoe was the head of maintenance and Frances first picked up a racket at the age of 3. Frances now is a professional and considered one of the top young U.S. men’s players.
“He’s got raw talent and enormous power,” said Ackman, 49, an avid tennis player who has played doubles with Tiafoe. “He’s got incredible potential. A huge game.”
Ackman is the founder and chief executive officer of New York-based Pershing Square Capital Management LP. Forbes lists him as No. 691 among the world’s billionaires with a net worth of $2.6 billion.
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Ackman no longer gives financial support to Tiafoe, who turned pro in April and became the first tennis player to sign with Roc Nation Sports, the athlete representation firm started by rap artist Shawn “Jay Z” Carter. Tiafoe says Ackman’s support was crucial when he was trying to build his game as an amateur.
“He’s done so well in life, and the fact that he wants to give back to young athletes like me, it’s unbelievable,” Tiafoe said in an interview at the National Tennis Center in New York.
Ackman, who said in a telephone interview that he was impressed by Tiafoe’s “pretty incredible life story” as well as his talent, declined to say how much he gave his protege. The money was given directly to the JTCC -- a nonprofit center founded in 1999 by Kenneth Brody, co-founder of New York-based Taconic Capital Advisors LLC-- for Tiafoe’s training and travel.
Tiafoe and his twin brother, Franklin, grew up on the tennis courts their father maintained. The family lived in a room at the center, where the boys had free access to the courts.