Frances Tiafoe began his grass-court season the hard way, outlasting German home hope Daniel Altmaier 7-6(3), 4-6, 6-4 in the first round of the BOSS Open on Tuesday to reach the second round at the Tennis Club Weissenhof.
The win carried extra weight given how the American’s clay season ended. At Roland Garros, Tiafoe was two points from a quarter-final place before Matteo Arnaldi reeled him back in to win a five-set epic — the kind of defeat that lingers. The reset came on grass, a surface where Tiafoe has history: he won this very title in 2023.
It was not comfortable. After taking a tight opening set on a tie-break, Tiafoe was pegged back as Altmaier, backed by the Stuttgart crowd, levelled the match. The decider stayed on serve until the American found the decisive edge to close it out 6-4. Tiafoe acknowledged the obvious afterwards, noting that a first match on grass is always tricky and that this was his first outing since the painful loss in Paris.
The early grass weeks are about exactly this — reps, rhythm and confidence ahead of Wimbledon rather than ranking points alone. Stuttgart has long served as a launchpad: several past champions here have carried that momentum into deep runs at the All England Club, and Tiafoe will hope a winning, if scratchy, start does the same.
He advances to face the winner of the next round in a Stuttgart draw headlined by home favourite Alexander Zverev, second seed Ben Shelton and defending champion Taylor Fritz. For now, the priority was simply to win and move on — first match on grass, first hurdle cleared.
