Americans Taylor Fritz and Tommy Paul have been thick as thieves since their formative years, when as highly-touted up-and-comers they not once but twice faced off in junior Grand Slam finals.
Paul prevailed on the red clay of Roland Garros in 2015; Fritz would return the favor later that same year at the US Open. Both players turned pro soon afterward, along with countrymen/pals Frances Tiafoe and Reilly Opelka. They’ve all remained close friends ever since, traveling in the same circles and, as fate would have it, often finding themselves clustered together in the ATP rankings.
Though Fritz has climbed the highest, reaching No. 5 in 2023, the most recent charts show an American bottle-up with Fritz, newcomer Ben Shelton and Paul at Nos. 13-15, and countrymen Sebastian Korda and Tiafoe at Nos. 16 and 20, respectively. It’s the first time since 1996 that there are five American men in the Top 20.
“I think it’s a testament to the work that we’ve put in here in the United States in the last 15 years in tennis,” said Shelton, who after taking the Houston title in April briefly leapfrogged his compatriots to become the newest American No. 1, the youngest since Andy Roddick two decades ago.
“Usually, you don’t see the fruits of your work immediately. You see a lot of guys breaking through around the same age, that at whatever time they were developing, we were doing something right. That’s a lot of credit to the culture that we’ve built here with American tennis and the USTA.”
“Having a group like Reilly, Tommy, Frances and Taylor come through at the exact same time, being almost the same age, is kind of unheard of from any country, especially with three of the four of those guys being in that Top 20 group right now,” added the former University of Florida standout. “I’m just excited to be a part of it, kind of along for the ride. I had a little bit of a different tennis upbringing than those guys, but I think it’s just proof that there’s a lot of different ways here in the U.S. to make it.”
That cluster order shifts from week to week, but the group somehow always seems to stick together.
“I wish that cluster was happening when Fritz was at No. 5 in the world,” laughed Paul earlier this month at the Cincinnati Open. “It happens. A couple of years back, it was a 31, 32, 33 kind of thing. I’m not sure why that happens. Obviously, we’re all looking to move up in the rankings. I get excited when other Americans move up.”
“We’re all pushing each other,” said Fritz.
That communal support has long permeated within this group. Whether it was Opelka booking the Top 20 in 2021, Fritz breaking through to his maiden ATP Masters 1000 title at Indian Wells in 2022, Paul reaching his first major semifinal at the Australian Open in 2023, Tiafoe cracking the Top 10, or the Fritz/Paul pairing earning bronze-medal honors in doubles at the Paris Olympics, each was happy to boost the others’ success.
“We all believe in ourselves a ton and know that we can go to these tournaments and make it to the last day, and even win,” said Paul, who has two titles to his credit in 2024 (Dallas, Queen’s Club).
“We all believe in ourselves a ton and know that we can go to these tournaments and make it to the last day, and even win." - Tommy Paul
Not that success came overnight for any of them. Paul didn’t infiltrate the Top 100 until 2019. It took another four years for him to reach a career-high No. 12.
“I think I had too much self-belief at a young age,” said Paul, 27. “When I turned 18, I thought it was going to come easy. In this sport, nothing is easy. You have to earn everything. Then you take a bunch of hits and maybe you don’t believe as much, but I had all my friends who I thought I could compete with, and they were making it. They were always motivating me and messaging me. Eventually, I did make it.”
The first American man to reach the Top 5 since Roddick in 2009, the 26-year-old Fritz knows he’s on the clock when it comes to the majors, his best showing being quarterfinals at the Australian Open (2024), Wimbledon (2022, 2024) and the US Open (2023). But the pressure, the expectations, he says, are mostly self-induced.
“I don’t think it’s an urgency, I just think I’ve become a much better player than I was a couple of years ago, so the expectations are a lot higher,” he said. “If you told me five years ago that I’d be finishing in the Top 10, I’d be really pumped. But now I feel like I need to finish Top 10. Expectations change. I wouldn’t say, ‘Oh, I’m getting old, I need to have a huge result.’
"I have an idea of where I believe my level is. If I’m not accomplishing that and moving forward, continuing to improve and getting good results, then I feel like I’m letting myself down.”
“When you put things into perspective, things have been going great,” he continued. “It’s just more myself wanting more and wanting to keep improving. The better you do, the more you want. It’s kind of just how most athletes are: You’re never really satisfied.”
Who knows? Maybe that rankings cluster will continue into the end of the year, with a trip to the ATP Finals at stake.
“This is a really important time of the year for points, ranking, everything,” said Fritz, already a titlist in Delray Beach and Eastbourne this year. “With Tommy and myself having pretty good years so far, I can see us both finishing in the Top 10.”
And wouldn’t that be something? The last time the U.S. had two men in the year-end Top 10 was in 2008, with Roddick and James Blake.
