Frances Tiafoe did not play college tennis.

The world’s No. 14-ranked men’s tennis player, however, sees the appeal.

Tiafoe, who turned 26 on Jan. 20, spent his youth at the Junior Tennis Champions Center in College Park, Md., outside of Washington. His father worked in maintenance at the center, and he and his brother would often spend nights there with their dad while his mother was working one of several jobs.

The son of immigrants from Sierra Leone is often asked to share his remarkable backstory from growing up at the center to joining the ranks of the world’s best players. He’s the top-ranked player at the Dallas Open, which begins with qualifying Sunday and runs through Feb. 11 at the Styslinger/Altec Tennis Complex on SMU’s campus.

“It’s obviously not your everyday tennis story,” Tiafoe says with a chuckle. “So, I understand that. I’ve told it a few times. I’m very proud of it.”

This is the third and final Dallas Open at SMU before the tournament moves to the Ford Center at The Star in Frisco next year, part of its transition from an ATP Tour 250-level tournament to an ATP 500.

More than 60 of the top men’s singles and doubles players are competing in the only ATP Tour indoor championship in the U.S., the 2022 Dallas Open singles champion, Reilly Opelka, as well as No. 15 Tommy Paul and No. 16 Ben Shelton, who with Tiafoe were featured in the Netflix docuseries Break Point.

From college to the pros

The success of college players such as Shelton, who won a national championship at Florida in 2021 under his father and head coach Bryan Shelton, has demonstrated how college tennis can lead to a professional career.

“It’s definitely a great stepping stone for building them a base before going on to the pros,” Dallas Open tournament director Peter Lebedevs said. “I think you’ve seen a lot more successful players [coming from college] recently. I’d say college tennis has always been a great starting base, sort of a minor league for the pros. But now you’re really seeing the value of it because of how many players have been successful after that.”

The ATP has attempted to massage the relationship between the pros and college amateurs, too, by providing wild card invitations. SMU’s Adam Neff, for example, earned one after competing in the tournament the previous two years.

“The ATP sees that is a great way for the players to get prepared for the pro tour,” said Lebedevs, who added that legend John McEnroe played at Stanford before turning pro. “It’s always been good. But now, a huge number of these players — people don’t even know some of those names — they played at a bunch of different schools.”

For Neff, the reigning American Athletic Conference Player of the Year, it’s another opportunity to play against some of the best in the world on his home court.

“It’s really cool, just to be able to feel at home and be in our home facility and on campus,” said Neff, who is in his last semester with the Mustangs. “Hopefully, I’ll be at a level I’m good enough to go play at The Star [next year]. It’s been a great opportunity for a lot of guys on our team and I’m just super thankful that I’m getting that opportunity this year.”

Neff, Lebedevs said, is a great example of how college tennis helps a young player develop.

“Adam will come out of this season for SMU and he’ll be ready to go out in the pros,” he said. “If you’d seen Adam a couple of years ago, he wasn’t ready. But now he’s so much better. That’s something that happens. College is allowing these guys to play a lot of matches, catch the physicality of their body to their ability and really be prepared when they decide to go pro.”

A year ago, the Dallas Open even made a point to celebrate the nearly 20 players with college tennis ties.

“Most tournaments don’t do that,” Neff said. “So it’s just cool that they really recognized college tennis. It’s pretty cool to see that kids are going a different route and are giving college a chance. It’s great because it gives you a couple of extra years to develop.”

The last time Shelton, 21, was in North Texas, he recalled, was when Florida played at TCU a few years ago. He said college competition has risen not only because of improved coaching, but also a bigger pool of talented young international players and top juniors going to college, at least for a year or two.

“I think it’s a great developmental pathway to professional tennis,” he said. “You learn a lot of skills in college outside of the actual tennis. Being on a team helps you learn how to become selfless, learn how to interact and get along with others, and learn how to lift other people up when they’re down. Time management skills, juggling school and tennis. There’s a lot of life lessons to be learned when you’re in college.”

Shelton may sound like his coach/father, but Lebedevs has seen the effects, too. The SMU men’s team won its first conference championship in 20 years in 2022 after hosting the Dallas Open.

“And what they said is, after being around the pros themselves and watching what they really did to train, like, ‘Oh, now I understand what it takes to do that,’” Lebedevs said. “So that really helped them. They got the opportunity to really see what it takes at the pro level. That’s been a great thing for us to provide for the SMU guys. And that’s why all of the other players, the Europeans, see the same thing. That’s why you see a lot of Europeans playing college tennis and being successful with it.”

For Tiafoe, who is aiming to “take it to the next level” this year, there are no regrets about forgoing college tennis, although he says he’d have been interested in attending Maryland if the Terps hadn’t cut men’s tennis during a cost-cutting move in 2011, when he was 13.

“I would have loved to play for Maryland if they hadn’t stopped,” he said. “Unfortunately, they didn’t have that. But also I think I made the right decision for my life at the time. It was more important to go the route I went.

“It doesn’t really matter what route they took; seeing a lot of Americans playing well and at a super-high level is something I love to see. Everyone’s path is different, right? There’s no right path.”