Taylor Fritz, Tommy Paul make U.S. history with Rome QF runs

Taylor Fritz and Tommy Paul both advanced to the Rome quarterfinals with statement wins on Tuesday, making history for American men's tennis in the process. For the first time since Andy Roddick and James Blake reached the last eight in 2008, two Americans are into the men's singles quarterfinals at the Italian ATP Masters 1000 event.

Between them, Fritz and Paul have lost just one set in six combined Rome victories. The 11th-seeded Fritz battled to a 6-2, 6-7(11), 6-1 win against Grigor Dimitrov on Tuesday, recovering after missing out on a match point in the marathon second-set tiebreak, before Paul dominated defending champion Daniil Medvedev in a 6-1, 6-4 result.

By reaching his first Rome quarterfinal, Fritz also became the first American to reach that stage at three clay-court Masters 1000s since the series began in 1990.

"That's a really cool stat," the American No. 1 said in his post-match press conference. "I think for me, I've kind of committed to this clay-court swing, playing all the events, for a long time. I think the generation before me, a lot of the Americans wouldn't want to play the whole swing or they skip Monte Carlo, whatever.

"For me, clay season's a huge part of the season. It's three Masters, some other tournaments and a Grand Slam. How can I ever be a top player that I want to be if I can't produce some results during the clay season? Because, like, I'm not that good where I'm going to dominate everywhere else. I always thought, like, if I want to be a Top 10 player, I need to be putting results in on clay."

The world No. 13, who reached a career high of No. 5 in February 2023, could return to the Top 10 by winning the Rome title.

Paul, who could match his career-high ATP ranking of No. 12 with the Rome title, earned the seventh Top 5 win of his career (7-10) by beating Medvedev. It was his first Top 5 win since beating then-world No. 1 Carlos Alcaraz last summer in Toronto. 

“I think it was a pretty clean match for me, other than maybe the first or second game in both sets,” Paul said after his first Top 20 win on clay, which saw him through to his fifth Masters 1000 quarterfinal and his first on the dirt. “I played some really good tennis. I played pretty aggressive, that was the game plan coming in.”

The victory earned Paul a measure of revenge after his semifinal defeat to Medvedev this year in Indian Wells. Seeking his third Masters 1000 semi, the American will meet seventh seed Hubert Hurkacz on Thursday.

Fritz is back in action on Wednesday against third seed Alexander Zverev. If both Americans can notch two more victories, they would set up an all-American final on Sunday.