Tommy Paul played his first tour-level match in over a month and secured a victory in his opening clash at the Cincinnati Open.
Kicking off his North American hard swing, the US star comfortably defeated Pedro Martinez in straight sets, besting the Spaniard 6-2, 6-2.
It was his first professional bout since the third of July, when Paul’s Wimbledon campaign ended in the second round after losing to Sebastian Ofner.
He joined a long list of seeded stars who exited the All England Club in the early rounds, including Alexander Zverev, Jack Draper, and Holger Rune.
After his lengthy break away from the sport, Paul said there has been a ‘crazy’ change on the ATP Tour recently.
Photo by Daniel Kopatsch/Getty ImagesTommy Paul gives his verdict on the current state of the ATP Tour
Speaking to Tennis Channel after his victory, he said: “What’s crazy is I feel like everyone can do everything now.
“[Jannik] Sinner is coming in [to the net] so much more now, I mean, you can tell it’s something that he’s been working on.
“If he gets to the point where he’s perfecting that, it’s going to be really scary. It’s already scary, but that’s a real complete player.
“And then with Ben [Shelton], I mean, I feel like he’s always been an aggressive player. What I noticed in the tournament last week [the Canadian Open] was, I mean, he was really extending points.
“He was slicing his back in a ton. He was drawing his opponents forward. I mean, in the match versus Khachanov, it was incredible to me, like the amount of short slices he did to bring him into the net.
“Ben’s always been pretty good at the net, but he’s gotten a lot better. I mean, it’s really great to see. I love watching that kind of tennis.
“I mean, even [Jenson] Brooksby, Brooksby does a lot of the short slices and gets to the net and just makes it uncomfortable. I like that stuff.”
Tommy Paul’s chance to gain points at the Cincinnati Open
Paul is currently ranked 16th in the world, but now has a chance to close in on the top ten at the Cincinnati Open.
At the tournament last year, the American crashed out of the Masters 1000 in his opening matchup, suffering defeat to Flavio Cobolli over three sets.
With his win over Martinez, he has already surpassed his finish in 2024, and can now pick up some valuable points.
His next opponent is Adrian Mannarino, against whom he has a head-to-head record of 1-1.