Take Five: Tommy Paul

Monday was bittersweet for American Tommy Paul. On the downside, the 22-year-old American lost in straight sets to Serbia’s Miomir Kecmanovic in the first round of the New York Open in Long Island, N.Y. On the plus side, Paul was named to the U.S. Davis Cup team that will face Uzbekistan next month in Honolulu.

Paul, currently ranked a career-best No. 70, joins Reilly Opelka, Taylor Fritz and the Bryan brothers, Mike and Bob, on the U.S. team. With a victory over Uzbekistan, the United States would qualify for the Davis Cup finals in Madrid in November.

For the Bryans, who have already announced they are retiring after the 2020 US Open, this will be their 15th Davis Cup tie. Paul will be representing his country in Davis Cup for the first time.

Despite the loss at the New York Open, Paul is a player on the rise. The Voorhees, N.J., native had his best Grand Slam showing at the Australian Open last month, reaching the third round after upsetting No. 20 Grigor Dimitrov.

Even after the early exit in singles competition, Paul was back on the black courts at Nassau Coliseum on Wednesday, playing a doubles match with fellow American John Isner. We caught up with Paul after that mach.

Q: How do you feel about playing in Davis Cup next month?

Tommy Paul: I’m super-pumped. I’ve only gone there as a hitting partner. Unreal experience just being part of the team, and I’m pumped to be on the team with Bob and Mike for their last Davis Cup. We have a group chat going for Davis Cup. I haven’t talked to them individually, but we’ve definitely been spitting some banter in the group chat.

Q: Despite exiting early here, you played well at the Australian. What can you take away from that?

Tommy Paul: Australian Open was good. I kinda had a good run. Sucks that I lost in the first round here, but we’ll see how next week (in Delray Beach) goes.

Q: Any specific goals for 2020?

Tommy Paul: I’m working on my one-handed backhand right now. I want to have a really good one-handed backhand by the end of the year. Ranking-wise, I never really have a ranking goal. There are just certain things in my game that I want to improve, like my one-handed backhand pass and my forehand drop shot. Those are my two biggest things that I’m working on. Those are the main things.

Q: How is that going?

Tommy Paul: I worked with (friend) Alex (Rybakov) a lot on the one-handed backhand. He’s a lefty, and we would just go backhands only. He already has a one-hander. He still beats me, but I’m gonna get there. … I don’t know if you saw, but Jordan Thompson (Tuesday vs. Ivo Karlovic) hit a one-handed backhand passing shot. It’s probably the most growing shot of 2020. I’d like to give myself credit for starting the hashtag “2020oney.” So that’s kind of a big thing this year. I think if Reilly Opelka added that shot to his game, he’d probably be Top 5 right now. I talk to him about it all the time, but he’s pretty stubborn (laughs).

Q: Nick Kyrgios described you as someone who “likes to have fun.” What exactly does he mean by that?

Tommy Paul: He said that? That’s weird, I don’t know. We have a lot of fun playing basketball, so he’s probably talking about that. We have a lot of similar interests. A lot of the same things are fun for both of us. Probably playing basketball and messing around with people on site. When I’m between tournaments, I play a lot of basketball—as much as we can, probably every day. Even when I’m practicing, I like to go shoot some hoops. That’s probably my biggest getaway from tennis.