WHAT HAPPENED: In four sets, two tiebreaks and the tension only a Grand Slam match could bring, 13th-seeded Tommy Paul was able to dig his way out from a set down to push past Canadian qualifier Gabriel Diallo, 6-7(5), 6-3, 6-1, 7-6 (3), in Round 3 Saturday in Louis Armstrong Stadium.
Diallo, a 22-year-old former University of Kentucky standout, had navigated through qualies and used his booming serve to upset No. 24 seed Frenchman Arthur Fils earlier in the week to find himself in Round 3.
From his 6-foot-8 frame, Diallo dished his big serve throughout the match to Paul, who couldn’t quite get control of the ball. In an effort to mitigate the might of Diallo’s serve, Paul was velcroed to the baseline to receive them, trying to catch the ball quickly.
The first set saw the players split games, until Diallo served an ace to get the first break of the match. Diallo stormed the net 23 times in the first set, nearly double the amount of Paul, and in a tiebreak, took the first set in aggressive style. The young player couldn’t contain his emotions, celebrating after he notched his first-set win.
Paul, while lagging, remained patient. Those power shots that gave Diallo the games in the first set came back to bite in the second, and before long, he was down three games to Paul, and eventually fell in the second.
The split sets saw Paul smooth out whatever availed him in the opener, and by set three, he won 82% on his first serve, and sailed nine winners to Diallo.
In the fourth set, the fighters bookended their spar with another tiebreak. At 6-3, Paul returned a forehand winner down the line to finally close the match.
“I feel like I returned really well, but he was all over my serve,” Paul said after his win.
“I definitely wasn't expecting it,” Paul said of the number of breaks in the match. “I know that he has a great serve and is very hard to break, and I tried to change things up, give him different looks. And I ended up returning really well, but he returned a lot better than I thought he was going to.”
WHAT IT MEANS: With the victory, Paul punches his ticket into the Round of 16 at the US Open for the second time in his career, matching his career-best performance at the tournament. He also reached the fourth round in 2023, when he fell to fellow American Ben Shelton.
Paul next faces the world's top-ranked men’s player and the tournament's No. 1 seed Jannik Sinner.
In the pair’s three previous meetings, Paul has taken one match from the Italian, at Eastbourne in 2022.
MATCH POINT: Paul joins fellow Americans Taylor Fritz, Brandon Nakashima and Frances Tiafoe in the fourth round. This marks the second straight year—and the first time since 2002-03—that four American men have made it to the Round of 16 at the US Open.
