Tiafoe controversial after match with Matteo Berrettini

Frances Tiafoe speaks after victory over Matteo Berrettini

Frances Tiafoe got some stones off his shoe after his Cincinnati first-round victory over Matteo Berrettini on tie-break after three hard-earned sets. “I needed this win. People can’t understand it, obviously the last few results haven’t really shown the good level of play I’m showing. And I played very good tennis, honestly.”

Tiafoe was coming off elimination in the round of 16 against Fritz, while at Wimbledon he had stopped in the round of 16: “I really needed a result like this, I know it’s only a first-round match but I knew I needed a win against a quality tennis player, a big guy on the circuit, and this was all important.”