{"id":588135,"date":"2026-04-06T01:30:08","date_gmt":"2026-04-06T01:30:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/588135\/"},"modified":"2026-04-06T01:30:08","modified_gmt":"2026-04-06T01:30:08","slug":"tommy-paul-saves-3-championship-points-to-win-first-atp-tour-clay-title-in-houston-atp-tour","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/588135\/","title":{"rendered":"Tommy Paul saves 3 championship points to win first ATP Tour clay title in Houston | ATP Tour"},"content":{"rendered":"

Match Report
\n Paul saves 3 championship points to win first ATP Tour clay title in Houston<\/p>\n

American outlasts Burruchaga in championship match<\/p>\n

April 05, 2026<\/p>\n

Getty Images<\/p>\n

Tommy Paul is the champion in Houston.
\n By ATP Staff<\/p>\n

Tommy Paul<\/a> was as close to defeat as possible Sunday in Houston, but refused to give in.<\/p>\n

The American saved three championship points to outlast Argentine Roman Andres Burruchaga<\/a> 6-1, 3-6, 7-5 in the Fayez Sarofim & Co. U.S. Men’s Clay Court Championship final to claim his fifth ATP Tour title and first on clay.<\/p>\n

“Roman, it was an amazing week,” Paul said to Burruchaga during the trophy presentation. “Today’s level was seriously great, great level.<\/p>\n

“You’re playing amazing tennis, and it is only going to get better.”<\/p>\n

In their maiden Lexus ATP Head2Head series clash, Burruchaga clinched an early break in the third set, then held three championship points on Paul’s serve, leading 5-3. But the American saved all three, benefitting from two errors before hitting a volley winner. <\/p>\n

The fourth seed then reeled off three consecutive games to seal the thriller. Paul finished having crucially saved 9 of the 12 break points he faced, according to Infosys ATP Stats.<\/p>\n

Watch Paul’s Championship Point Saves:<\/p>\n

Paul ensured a fifth consecutive American champion in Houston with his two-hour, 40-minute triumph. The home favourite followed Reilly Opelka (2022), Frances Tiafoe (2023), Ben Shelton (2024) and Jenson Brooksby (2025). With the win, the 28-year-old Paul became the oldest Houston champion since a 32-year-old Juan Monaco in 2016.<\/p>\n

Paul suffered a heartbreaking quarter-final defeat to Arthur Fils at the ATP Masters 1000 event in Miami, where the American let slip four match points to lose to the Frenchman. But the former No. 8 player in the PIF ATP Rankings has this week bounced back with a title in Houston. <\/p>\n

In addition to his Houston triumph, Paul reached the Delray Beach final in February. He is now in eighth place in the PIF ATP Live Race to Turin.<\/p>\n

\"\u201cATP<\/a><\/p>\n

Burruchaga was chasing his first tour-level title and was aiming to become the fourth first-time champion this season. The Argentine stormed through the draw in Houston, upsetting fifth seed Brandon Nakashima in the second round and third seed Learner Tien in the quarter-finals and dropped only two games in a commanding semi-final win against Thiago Agustin Tirante. <\/p>\n

With his run to the championship match, Burruchaga has risen 15 places to No. 62 in the PIF ATP Live Rankings.<\/p>\n

“Congratulations to Tommy, well deserved, it was a really great final,” Burruchaga said. “I am really proud of myself for the week that I did. I am going to try again, every week we have opportunities.”<\/p>\n

Did You Know?
Paul earned the first ATP Tour main draw of his career in Houston in 2016, when he defeated Paolo Lorenzi as an 18-year-old.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Match Report Paul saves 3 championship points to win first ATP Tour clay title in Houston American outlasts…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":588136,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[565],"tags":[64,63,85,747],"class_list":{"0":"post-588135","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-tennis","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-sports","11":"tag-tennis"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/588135","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=588135"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/588135\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/588136"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=588135"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=588135"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=588135"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}