I love a clean home.

I literally sweated for 3 hours yesterday as it was 90 degrees outside and I refrained from igniting the AC because the electrical grid was ready to expire.

The place sparkled.

But, satisfaction is fleeting.

Constant upkeep is mandatory for a clean freak like me.

I took a break to watch tennis at the US Open.

I miss working with the on-air talent and observing  the players perform up close and personal.

There are some awesome young players.

Monday presented a real conundrum. The #24 ranked American, Frances Tiafoe, played my favorite player, Rafa Nadal, who I met at his first US Open when he could not speak English and wore capris on the court.

I have been following Tiafoe for 7 years.

His back story is very interesting.

Tiafore’s parents immigrated from Sierra Leone to escape the civil war there.

In 1999, his father began working as a day laborer on a construction crew that built the Junior Tennis Champions Center in College Park, Maryland.

When the facility was completed, his father was hired as the on-site custodian and given a spare office to live in at the center.

Frances and his twin brother, Franklin, lived with their father at the center five days a week for the next 11 years and took advantage of their situation, playing tennis regularly from age 4.

The brothers started training at the Center, bypassing the usual fees. The powers that be recognized Frances’ talent and the rest is history.

I look back on my youth and appreciate my parents for offering me so many choices.

If I followed in their footsteps I could have been a sommelier, a wine and liquor connoisseur or a ballet dancer.

Thankfully, I was also exposed to sports which suited me better than dancing or drinking, although nowadays being a female sommelier is a very cool profession.

It is truly amazing. You can be anything you want if you have drive, desire and opportunity.

Tiafoe beat Nadal in the round of 16 and is now in the US Open quarterfinals…I am rooting for him to make a clean sweep and go all the way.

GIF/GIFER