Why Tommy Paul’s success at 2023 Australian Open is not surprising

Tommy Paul (Keith Allison, Wikimedia Commons)

Prior to every grand slam tennis tournament, I like many fill out my bracket on the men’s side. For me, I use www.tennisdrawchallenge.com. As everyone knows, there are 32 seeds in the men’s and women’s singles draw. In the 2023 Australian Open, I took an unseeded player in Tommy Paul of Voorhees, New Jersey, to reach the semifinals.

Well. gosh golly gee folks, Paul. the 25-year-old American, is one win away from reaching the final four. An American man is actually guaranteed to reach the semifinals of a major for the second consecutive time as Paul’s quarterfinal opponent will be former NCAA star Ben Shelton of Atlanta, Georgia, who won the 2022 NCAA Division I Singles Championship with the University of Florida. At the 2022 United States Open, Frances Tiafoe of Hyattsville, Maryland made the semifinals, before losing to Carlos Alcaraz of Spain, 6-7, 6-3, 6-1, 6-7, 6-3.

In the other half of the draw, the 29th seed, Sebastian Korda of Bradenton, is still alive. He will be facing the 18th seed, Karen Khachanov of Russia in the quarterfinals.

Paul made the quarterfinals by beating the pesky German, Jan-Lennard Struff 6-1, 7-6, 6-2 in the first round, the 30th seed Alejandro Davidovich Fokina 6-2, 2-6, 6-7, 6-3, 6-4 in the second round, American Jenson Brooksby 6-1, 6-4, 6-3 in the third round, and the 24th seed Roberto Bautista Agut of Spain 6-2, 4-6, 6-2, 7-5.

A reason I thought highly of Paul is because of his results over the last year. He reached the quarterfinals of the Paris Masters in the fall, the fourth round of Wimbledon, third round of the United States Open, and the quarterfinals of the National Bank Open in Montreal.

How far do you think Paul can go at the 2023 Australian Open?

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