Tommy Paul & Australia, the perfect match?

Tommy Paul enjoyed the best season of his career in 2023 and it all started at the Australian Open.

The American battled to the semi-finals at the hard-court major, cracking the Top 20 in the Pepperstone ATP Rankings for the first time. Back in Melbourne this week, the 26-year-old looks back on last year’s event with fondness.

“I think the things that stick out from last year was that I played pretty aggressive tennis, I served pretty well,” Paul told ATPTour.com. “It was actually a pretty loose couple of weeks. I had a pretty good time. My girlfriend was in town. Mum came. It was kind of just a fun couple weeks.

“I was quite relaxed off court, which kind of helps. In those events, it gets pretty hectic. It feels like sometimes at those tournaments, it feels everything's closing in on you and it's like a little too much. I like to keep things pretty relaxed. I don't like to do too much stuff or be outside too much during tournaments, but in Australia, it's pretty easy. Everything is pretty convenient and pretty easy going. It kind of matches my personality. I just tried to stay off my feet between matches and I’m pretty good at that.”

The 14th seed’s relaxed off-court approach combined with his attacking on-court game worked in Australia. He moved past Jan-Lennard Struff, Alejandro Davidovich Fokina, Jenson Brooksby, Roberto Bautista Agut and Ben Shelton before eventual champion Novak Djokovic stopped him in the semi-finals.

“When I was playing in Australia and I kind of tried to do it throughout the year, I just played more aggressive, serving better, taking more risk,” Paul said. “But also at the same time playing a little smarter.

“I think it's also experience that helps. Playing those big matches. You have a lot of pressure situations and every match it's really how you deal with those. And I think I've got a lot better dealing with those situations and I kind of look forward to those situations.”

After Australia, Paul advanced to finals in Acapulco and Eastbourne. He reached his first ATP Masters 1000 semi-final in Toronto and climbed to a career-high No. 12 in October.

Currently at No. 14, Paul is one of four Americans inside the Top 20, with 10 Americans inside the Top 100. Paul, who defeated countryman Shelton in the Australian Open quarter-finals last year, is excited about the current state of American tennis.

“People in my kind of group in the 1997, 1998 years, with Francis [Tiafoe] and [Taylor] Fritz, I think we've all kind of learned a lot every year. We have got better every year,” Paul said. “We've been pushing each other. We see each other doing well. We want to do better.

“But then at the same time you have the younger group with Ben [Shelton] and [Sebastian] Korda coming up and I mean Korda's kind of been there for a while now. He's definitely been a tough guy to play against forever. It's just exciting. Like obviously their path to where they're at now is a lot quicker than maybe mine or even Francis’. I feel Francis was there for a while, but now I feel like he's really solidified himself as one of the top players in the world.”

_{^{Tommy Paul and Ben Shelton after their quarter-final match last year. Photo: Getty Images}}
The benefits of having a strong crop of American players was evident during Paul’s off-season. The 2021 Stockholm champion prepped for the Aussie swing alongside a number of his countrymen in Florida.

“I did off-season at home in Florida,” Paul said. “We had a pretty good group of guys that we were training with. I was with J.J. Wolf, Francis was down there, Kovacevic, Reilly Opelka. Michael Mmoh was down there a couple days. We had a really good group. We were getting after it. We were grinding and a lot of us were actually doing fitness together. We were on court straight to the gym together. It was a fun time, but we were crushing it. We were working really hard.

“It's way more fun with people that you really enjoy. We all love playing against each other. We all hang out quite a bit. The banter is really good between all of us. It definitely makes a big difference. It's amazing playing with or practising with people at such a high level. Sometimes some people are in areas where they can't practice with the best players in the States or the best players in the world. And I mean, I'm lucky enough that I have a bunch of the best players in the world living in the same place as me. It is nice.

Paul will hope the work undertaken in Florida will help him in Melbourne, starting against Frenchman Gregoire Barrere in the first round. After gaining his first win of the season at the ATP 250 event in Adelaide last week, the 26-year-old is ready to go deep again at the major.

“I'm excited. The conditions are pretty good for me. I like the way the courts play. I like the heat. I like the heat a lot and I think I play pretty well in the heat,” Paul said. “I've spent a good chunk of my life living in Florida and it's pretty hot down there. Different kind of heat, but I would much rather play in heat than cold or indoors or anything like that.”