Tommy Paul

Thomas "Tommy" Paul (born May 17, 1997) is an American professional tennis player. Paul has a career-high ATP singles ranking of world No. 39 achieved on 21 February 2022 and doubles ranking of No. 150 achieved on 24 May 2021. He won his maiden ATP title at the 2021 Stockholm Open.

Tommy Paul has always been one of the highest ranked juniors of his class. Paul reached a career-high ITF junior rank of No. 3 on December 9, 2015.

Paul reached two junior Grand Slam finals in 2015. He won the 2015 French Open boys' singles title by defeating fellow American Taylor Fritz in the final in three sets. At the same tournament he reached the final in doubles partnering fellow American William Blumberg. He also reached the final at the 2015 US Open boys' singles, this time losing to Fritz in three sets.

Professional

2015: Grand Slam debut

Paul turned pro in 2015. Unusually for an American, Paul has shown a preference for playing on clay, having won the Junior French Open and his first four ITF Futures singles titles on clay. He qualified for the main draw of a Grand Slam for the first time at the 2015 US Open, losing to Andreas Seppi in the first round.

2016: First top 100 and ATP level win

Paul at the 2016 US Open

In March 2016, Paul cracked the Top 200 for the first time by qualifying for the Miami Masters. In April, Paul was awarded a wild card into the 2016 U.S. Men's Clay Court Championships at Houston, and defeated 53rd-ranked Paolo Lorenzi in the 1st round for his first career ATP level win.

Paul would then mainly compete on the ATP Challenger circuit and ITF circuit for the remainder of 2016.

2017: First ATP 500 quarterfinal

He continued competing in Challengers and ITFs in first half of 2017. In July 2017, after going through qualifying at the Atlanta Open, he defeated seventh seed and 53rd-ranked Chung Hyeon in three sets. He then went on to defeat Malek Jaziri in three sets to advance to his first ATP tour-level quarterfinal. Then he was defeated by third seed Gilles Müller. Following his performance in Atlanta, Tommy was awarded a wildcard into the ATP 500 Washington Open. Paul defeated Casper Ruud to advance to the second round. He then played Lucas Pouille and achieved the biggest win of his career, defeating the Frenchman in straight sets. In the next round, he faced Gilles Müller again, but this time came out on top in three sets to reach his first ATP 500 quarterfinal. He lost to Kei Nishikori in three sets.

2019: Top 100 debut

In September 2019, Paul broke into the top 100 for the first time in his career having won his second ATP Challenger title of the year in New Haven, after winning in Sarasota earlier in the season.

2020: First Grand Slam third round in singles and quarterfinal in doubles

Paul reached the third round of a Grand Slam for the first time in his career at the 2020 Australian Open by defeating 18th seed Grigor Dimitrov in the second round[5] before falling to Marton Fucsovics.

He also reached the second round in singles and the quarterfinal in doubles, partnering fellow American Nicholas Monroe at the 2020 French Open on his preferred surface for the first time.

2021: Top 50 and Olympics debut, first Top 5 win, maiden ATP title

In May, Paul reached the semifinal of the tune-up event to Roland Garros at the 2021 Emilia-Romagna Open in Parma, Italy where he lost to Sebastian Korda. In June, Paul reached the second round at the 2021 French Open where he lost to 2nd seed Daniil Medvedev. As a result, he entered the top 50 at No. 50 on June 14, 2021, one spot higher of his career high ranking of No. 51 that he achieved on 8 March 2021 after reaching the quarterfinals at the 2021 Rotterdam Open.

Paul qualified to represent the United States at the 2020 Summer Olympics, where he lost in the first round to 11th seed Aslan Karatsev.

At the 2021 BNP Paribas Open he recorded one of the biggest win of his career, defeating World No. 5 and fourth seed Andrey Rublev to reach the round of 16. Previously, he had never made the third round of an ATP Masters 1000 event. This was his second win against a Top 10 opponent after he defeated Alexander Zverev in Acapulco in 2020.

At the 2021 Stockholm Open he reached the first ATP final of his career, defeating Andy Murray in the quarterfinals and Frances Tiafoe in the semifinals. He won the title, defeating defending champion Denis Shapovalov. He became the 10th first time titlist of the year.

Playing style

Paul possesses a strong attacking forehand and solid footwork along the baseline and speed coming into net, attributes that have allowed him success on clay surfaces.

Paul is currently coached by Brad Stine since 2020.