Tommy Paul pulled off the win of his life at the Rolex Paris Masters, rallying from a set down to defeat world No. 2 Rafael Nadal, 3-6, 7-6 (4), 6-1—not only avenging an Acapulco defeat to the 22-time major champion but also culminating what has been a meteoric rise that began last November when he won his first ATP title in Stockholm.
The 2015 French Open junior champion, now 25, went on to compile a career-best season in 2022, reaching his first Grand Slam fourth round at Wimbledon, his first Masters 1000 quarterfinal in Toronto, and crack the Top 30. While this is his fifth Top 10 victory of the year, Nadal marks his first win over a “Big 3” player.
Paul checked in during a breakthrough US Open to share adventures on his family’s farm, style tips, and some insight into the state of U.S. men’s tennis.
TENNIS.com: When you were competing in the juniors alongside Taylor Fritz and Reilly Opelka, were you all envisioning you would all one day be in the thick of it against the pros?
Tommy Paul: I think when we were 14 or whatever, we kind of thought we were going to college and maybe pro after that. We obviously wanted to be good, and then when we were 17 or 18, we realized we could be really good pro tennis players. But we never really talked about anything like that. We were just normal teenagers, not talking about tennis in our free time.
We came out for juniors and obviously you’re thinking, ‘I hope I get a cool court,’ or whatever. But we weren’t talking a lot of tennis, pretty much.