Quote of the Day: Tommy Paul needed an alarm clock after staying up to watch Novak Djokovic's US Open defeat

NEW YORK—The tennis world watched with baited breath and bleary eyes as Novak Djokovic suffered his earliest exit from the US Open since 2006. Tommy Paul was no exception.

The No. 14 seed and Matthew McConaughey's favorite player has been keeping up with the numerous upsets affecting the men’s draw—even as his own section has held to form—revealing he stayed up Friday night to watch Djokovic’s four-set defeat to Alexei Popyrin.

Some of that fatigue may have played into his own four-set tussle with Canadian qualifier Gabriel Diallo, but Paul believes he experienced most of his Olympic hangover prior to arriving in New York:

Q. Curious if you saw any of Carlos and Novak's matches.

TOMMY PAUL:Yeah.

Q. What did you think about them? Obviously, we're been talking about Olympic fatigue, but you were at the Olympics the whole week and I'm curious if you're feeling more tired than maybe in previous years.

TOMMY PAUL:Yeah, to answer your first question, I did watch the matches. Last night I was kind of hoping that it would end a little earlier, because I wanted to go to sleep. Today was the first day I used an alarm clock the whole tournament.**

Yeah, I mean, like I said earlier, I think the guys that played Alcaraz and Novak both stepped up and played awesome.

But, yeah, I mean, I feel like I had the Olympic fatigue, I guess at the right time, in Canada and Cincy, but now I'm feeling pretty good. I had a nice little reset. Yeah, it's a tough turnaround. Like, we never go from grass to clay to hard so quickly.

But I don't want to take anything away from those guys. I mean, they earned those wins and they played awesome tennis. I'm happy for them. And, you know, Carlos and Novak have won quite a few tournaments, so I don't feel too bad, I guess. (Laughter.)

While the entire Olympic men’s singles podium of Djokovic, Carlos Alcaraz, and Lorenzo Musetti was wiped out in 24 hours, the bronze-medal men’s doubles team of Paul and Taylor Fritz are still in the hunt for a maiden major title, Paul booking a fourth-round meeting with top seed Jannik Sinner on Labor Day while Fritz faces No. 8 seed Casper Ruud Sunday.

Paul and Sinner have played on all three surfaces, with Sinner winning their clay and hard-court meetings while Paul won on grass.

Competing on the quicker US Open courts, can Paul complete the sweep of Top 3 seeds with a win over the world No. 1?