Ready (in) '24: Tommy Paul turns injury break into clay-court training bloc, aims to peak at Roland Garros

Tommy Paul didn’t mind going two hours and 19 minutes in his Mutua Madrid Open-er against Lukas Klein: it allowed the American to make up for lost time.

“I’m actually happy that the match today went a little longer,” he admitted after defeating Klein, 6-7 (5), 6-1, 6-4. “I really found my game and started settling in during the match. Hopefully, every match gets a little better until I’m peaking at Roland Garros.”

The 2015 junior champion has tended to play his best tennis on faster courts since turning professional, reaching a Grand Slam second week on all but the terre battue, but an unlucky ankle turn in the middle of his Miami Open match with countryman Martin Damm gave Paul the chance to re-commit himself to clay.

“Normally, we don’t get that and kind of jump right into Houston or Monte Carlo,” he told Prakash Amritraj at the Tennis Channel Live Desk. “It was nice to get a few weeks to put some work in. We got it in at the gym, too, so I feel like I’m coming here fit and excited to play on the dirt.”

Still, Paul had reason to feel some frustration: the 26-year-old had shaken off a disappointing Australian Open exit to win his second ATP title indoors in Dallas, and was coming off a near-miss at the BNP Paribas Open, where he pushed Daniil Medvedev to the brink of defeat before falling to the eventual finalist in the semis.

“It kind of sucked,” Paul said. “We were waiting for the swelling to go down to get the MRI, so there was kind of two, three, four days where we didn’t even know the severity of the injury or what the ligaments looked like in there. After the swelling went down, we got pretty good news and it wasn’t anything good bad. It was kind of routine for an ankle sprain. Then we got right back to work.”

Paul captured some of that preparation on an Instagram reel set to the apropos “Ready ’24,” by fellow N.C. native J. Cole.

“You should have seen the song that originally came on that video. It was not good,” Paul joked, “So, we had to switch it up. I’m from North Carolina, and I’m a big J. Cole guy. I love that song.”

Back on court for his first match in over a month, Paul was so amped to play that he overdid it on the ankle brace, causing his foot to go numb before readjusting for the correct tightness. Despite losing a close first set, the No. 15 seed similarly readjusted in the second before serving out the third and booking a third-round clash with No. 21 seed Francisco Cerúndolo.

“My results over the past two years haven’t been great on the dirt, but I actually do feel pretty comfortable on it and I’m more excited to play on it than I’ve ever been.”