Frances Tiafoe Withdraws From Georgia Tennis Event After Testing Positive For COVID-19

Frances Tiafoe has withdrawn from the DraftKings All-American Team Cup in Georgia after testing positive for COVID-19, he announced Saturday on social media.

Tiafoe, ranked No. 81 in the world, will be replaced by former Georgia Tech star and Atlanta native Chris Eubanks on Team Stars.

Tiafoe, 22, said in a social media post he “tested positive late Friday” after his first match, a 6-4, 7-6 win over Sam Querrey in the team event. Due to the time frame, he must have gotten the virus prior to arriving at the event in Georgia. He said he had been “training in Florida” for the “past two months.”

Following his win over Querrey, Tiafoe said he was considering retiring from the match but ended up persevering.

“It was tough. I was playing well, but I hit a serious wall,” Tiafoe said. “I honestly thought I was going to retire but I started to push for the fans. I didn’t want to be that guy to stop short. I came back out and was hanging by a thread.”

Tiafoe is the first player in the event, which includes the eight top American men and features limited fans, to withdraw.

Four players on Novak Djokovic’s Adria Tour tested positive on that tour in Serbia and Croatia after they failed to socially distance and were seen out clubbing and dancing.

Entering the Georgia event, Querrey and Tennys Sandgren both told Forbes SportsMoney they were determined to avoid the mistakes made on the Adria Tour, where Djokovic, Borna Coric, Victor Troiki and Grigor Dimitrov all tested positive.

Djokovic has since tested negative.

“They seemed like they didn’t try at all,” Querrey said by phone on Thursday. “They had a player a party. The fans were packed with crowds and the players were high fiving and they did pickup basketball.

“We’re not doing any of that. There’s going to be some fans. We’re not high fiving, we’re not going out to player parties. We’re going hotel to the courts. Last week it was hotel to the courts [in Miami]. No one high-fived. Everyone wore masks.”