Tommy Paul has secured his spot in the Round of 16 at this year’s Miami Open, and seems to be going under the radar as a threat for the title.
After all, his route to the final has just been made significantly easier, given what also happened during his match.
Whilst he was winning his third-set tiebreak against Raphael Collignon, Sebastian Korda was beating Carlos Alcaraz elsewhere, in a result that sent shockwaves throughout the tennis world.
Tommy Paul has now reacted to that result, whilst also explaining what his relationship with his fellow American is really like.
Tommy Paul reacts to Seb Korda’s win over Carlos Alcaraz
Chatting with the Tennis Channel desk, they could not discuss the day’s tennis without touching on Korda’s win.
After all, it was the most shocking result of the event by some distance, and yet Paul insisted he saw it coming.
The American claimed: “He does it so well [getting to the net]. He can change direction and be up there at the net really quickly, and then he has great hands.
What do you think is Carlos Alcaraz’s best surface and why?
“I thought he was going to give Carlos a lot of trouble today. I was really excited to see that he got the win.”
Discussing the atmosphere, as the Miami Open crowd roared on their home favourite to a famous victory, Paul added: “I heard it from out on my court, it was hard not to hear it! But I was pumped for him.
“We warmed up together and we were not supposed to; we were both hitting with hitting partners, and we were like, let’s just do it, and we both ended up playing some solid tennis today.”
He concluded by touching on his relationship with Korda and the rest of the Americans on tour: “I was just talking the other day about how players now seem much closer across the board than 20 years ago, but I think that’s social media. We know what everyone is up to and what everyone likes to do, and we have stuff to talk about in the locker room.
“I think it’s a great thing. In general, I think it brings most of us closer together, especially the Americans.
“We always like hanging out with each other. We have got good banter amongst each other. It’s good fun.”
Korda explained how he managed to beat Alcaraz in his own on-court interview, revealing the advice his coach gave him right before the match.
Seb Korda blows his half of the Miami Open draw wide open
In beating Carlos Alcaraz, Korda has dumped out the overwhelming favourite to reach the final from his half of the Miami Open draw.
And, in doing so, he has granted one of a handful of unlikely stars the opportunity of a deep run at a Masters 1000 event.
Taylor Fritz is now the only top-20 player left battling for that spot in the final, and he will face Jiri Lehecka next.
Elsewhere, Korda has been granted the opportunity to face another Spaniard after beating Alcaraz, with the unseeded Martin Landaluce his next opponent.
Paul, fresh from his latest win, will now face Tomás Martín Etcheverry, with Valentin Vacherot and Arthur Fils making up the rest of this half of the draw.
One player outside the top 20 will soon be a Masters 1000 semi-finalist, and should Fritz fail to make this opportunity pay, the Miami crowd will likely be treated to the most unlikely of finalists.
