Tommy Paul

Tommy Paul: American tennis star with top-class footwork

The American tennis professional Thomas John Robert Paul, known simply as Tommy Paul, was born on 17 May 1997 in Voorhees Township, a suburb of Philadelphia. He grew up in Greenville, North Carolina, after his family moved there when he was three months old. The Paul family also includes his father Kevin, his mother Jill, his brother Dylan and his sister Jessie Lynn.

In Greenville his parents got him excited about tennis and at the age of seven he began hitting his first balls on clay courts. Andy Roddick was Tommy's great tennis idol in his youth. Tommy names the smash as his best shot and the US Open as his favourite tournament. In his free time he likes to take up other sports alongside tennis. His sporting hobbies include surfing, basketball, golf and the trend sport dirt bike. In the American football league NFL he roots for the Philadelphia Eagles, and in basketball's NBA for the Philadelphia 76ers.

Milestones in Tommy Paul's ATP career

At the junior French Open in 2015, Tommy Paul claimed a Grand Slam win while still a teenager. He beat Taylor Fritz to do it. In the same year he made his professional debut and played his first Grand Slam tournament at the US Open. In 2018 and 2019 Tommy Paul celebrated four final wins on the ATP Challenger Tour in Charlottesville, Sarasota, New Haven and Tiburon. Another milestone in his career as a professional was his first ATP Tour title in November 2021 in Stockholm, where he beat Andy Murray and Frances Tiafoe on his way to the final and ultimately came through against Denis Shapovalov as well.

One of the greatest successes of Tommy Paul's tennis career is reaching the semi-finals of the 2023 Australian Open, where he beat Jan-Lennard Struff, Roberto Bautista Agut and his compatriot Ben Shelton among others. That made him the first American ATP professional since Andy Roddick in 2009 to reach the Australian Open semi-finals. As a result he broke into the world's top 20 in the ATP rankings for the first time.

2024 brought the strongest year of his career so far: Tommy Paul won his second ATP title in Dallas and then took the grass-court tournament at Queen's Club in London, beating Lorenzo Musetti in the final. He reached the quarter-finals at Wimbledon, and at the Olympic Games in Paris he won the bronze medal in the doubles together with Taylor Fritz. In 2025 he made the leap into the top 10: on 9 June 2025 he reached his best placing to date at number 8. He also reached the quarter-finals at the Australian Open, the semi-finals at the Masters in Rome and – for the first time in his career – the quarter-finals at the French Open.

In 2026 Tommy Paul completed his surface portfolio: in Houston he won his first ATP title on clay at the U.S. Men's Clay Court Championships – in the final against Román Andrés Burruchaga, having saved three match points. A few months later he reached the final of the Hamburg Open, making him the first American in a Hamburg final since Jimmy Connors in 1981. His record therefore now includes four ATP titles on hard court, grass and clay.

A strong forehand and stable footwork

The 185-centimetre right-hander Tommy Paul grew up on clay courts and now feels at home on every surface – he has won his titles and produced his best Grand Slam results on hard court, grass and clay. He has a strong, aggressively struck attacking forehand. Remarkable too is his very stable footwork along the baseline and the speed with which Tommy comes forward to the net and then often finishes the point successfully.

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Tommy Paul's equipment: buy his racket, shoes & outfit at Tennis-Point

Tommy Paul plays with the Yonex VCORE 98, a spin-oriented tournament racket from the traditional Japanese brand Yonex with a 98 square inch head – the classic choice for tournament players looking for plenty of rotation and control rather than maximum power. He previously played a Wilson Blade 98 for years before switching to the more spin-friendly VCORE. His racket is strung as a hybrid: polyester in the mains and natural gut in the crosses – at his tournament win in Houston in 2026 with Luxilon ALU Power Rough at around 22.5 kilos in the mains and natural gut at 24 kilos in the crosses. For shoes and clothing Tommy Paul relies entirely on New Balance: on court he wears the New Balance Fresh Foam X CT-Rally – the CT-Rally v2, launched in 2026 in the striking "Outdoor Court" design, was inspired by him – along with tennis clothing from New Balance from the current tournament collection. He carries his rackets in a Yonex tennis bag.

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