Tiafoe is janitor’s son who slept on tables, has won £9m and on brink of glory

American tennis fans have waited a draining 16 years for one of their own male stars to reach the final of their home slam.

Andy Roddick was the last homegrown hero to reach the final of the men’s singles at the US Open in 2006, but was brushed aside in four sets by Roger Federer.

Roddick also remains the last American man to have won the US Open, that coming back in 2003.

But since then, it’s been a painstaking drought that’s lasted over two decades and has been littered with false dawns.

John Isner‘s booming serve was never enough to propel him deep in a Grand Slam.

Mardy Fish reached as high as No. 7 in the ATP rankings but could never translate it into Slam success.

Yet American tennis is about to have a new hero, as Taylor Fritz and Frances Tiafoe collide in the semi-finals of the men’s singles on Friday.

For Fritz, his berth in the final four continues his career-best year at Grand Slams having qualified for the quarter-finals at the Australian Open and Wimbledon.

As for Tiafoe, he shines when the spotlight is at its brightest in Flushing Meadows, making the semi-finals in 2022 and the quarter-finals last year.

Tiafoe’s journey to becoming a professional tennis player is one straight out of a Hollywood flick.

The 26-year-old is the son of immigrants from Sierra Leone and his father, Constant, worked as a janitor at the Junior Tennis Champions Center in Washington back in 1999.

With the large amount of work required, Constant moved into a vacant storage unit at the tennis centre and called it home.

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Frances and his twin brother, Franklin, would also sleep in the unit, using a massage table as a makeshift mattress.

Some of the more fortunate kids at the tennis facility would mock Tiafoe for the Pikachu t-shirt he would often wear and how his big toe popped out of a hole in his shoe.

But for Tiafoe, the mocking mattered little as a trip with his mother to Sierra Leone opened his eyes to the extreme levels of poverty and gave him perspective on the things he had in life.

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Luckily for Tiafoe, a coach at the tennis centre named Misha Kouznetsov saw his enthusiasm for tennis and immediately took him under his wing.

In fact, Kouznetsov would cover the cost of Tiafoe’s entry fees to various tournaments as he continued to impress with wins over taller and older opponents.

Tiafoe’s crowning moment as a junior arrived when he became the youngest male to win the Orange Bowl tournament, regarded as one of the most prestigious tournaments on offer in youth tennis.

However, it took some time before the promise Tiafoe showed as a youngster translated to success on the ATP tour.

Tiafoe won the Delray Beach Open in 2018 but would not win another title until the US Men’s Clay Court Championships in 2023.

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When it came to slams, Tiafoe made to the quarter-final of the Australian Open in 2019, but that was the furthest he went until the 2022 US Open.

Yet he now stands three sets away from doing what he, and no other American male, has done since Roddick.

Tiafoe’s deep run in New York will also add to his constantly-expanding wallet, too.

Throughout Tiafoe’s career in singles and doubles, he has earned £9million ($11m), per the ATP site.

So, how much will that figure rise once the dust settles on his US Open campaign?

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If he is to lose against Fritz, Tiafoe is guaranteed to take home £761k ($1million).

A win in the final would see Tiafoe earn £2.7m ($3.6m) while a runners-up finish secures a £1.3m ($1.8m) payday.

Regardless, the financial figures are some Tiafoe never would have dreamt of earning during those nights sleeping on a physio table inside a storage unit at a Washington tennis centre.

Yet here he stands, just two wins away from inspiring a new generation of athletes and ending America’s long, long wait for its next male Grand Slam king.