AUSTRALIAN OPEN

January 25, 2026

Tommy Paul

Press Conference

C. ALCARAZ/T. Paul

7-6, 6-4, 7-5

THE MODERATOR: We'll go straight to questions.

Q. Tommy, what do you think made the difference today? Just take me through a little bit what happened in the tiebreaker.

TOMMY PAUL: Like in terms of the tennis...

Q. The tennis, the breaks, everything that went into it.

TOMMY PAUL: Yeah, I'm not really sure. I think somebody was in the crowd had, like, been struggling. But then they came to us and said, it's all fine, they're totally fine in their seats. Then we just returned to play.

We got to his serves. It didn't really affect anything. I hope the person is okay. But yeah, I mean, he just played better than me all three sets really.

Q. It seemed like you were right there with him for a lot of the match, and I know in past matches you've described sort of maybe the score is close, or even at Wimbledon you won a set and something, but you described it that you couldn't really breathe and it was going really fast. I'm sort of curious, how does it feel playing Carlos Alcaraz right now with your health versus past versions of him that you've seen and past versions of you, I guess?

TOMMY PAUL: Yeah, I definitely don't have an excuse this time, you know (smiling). He totally outplayed me.

I guess the way that I would describe it is, you know, he kind of, like, suffocates you in a way. He makes you feel like you have no time. He rushes you.

Today he exposed... I hit my forehand terribly today, and he saw that early. He was trying to get in that forehand-to-forehand rally, and he did it much better than I did. That's what it felt like.

It felt like he got all the patterns he wanted, and I was having a tough time getting into the patterns that I wanted.

Q. Just one follow-up. He keeps messing around with his serve. He's serving off the charts at the US Open. I'm sort of curious what his serve felt like today.

TOMMY PAUL: Man, I haven't really paid attention to it too much, his serve. I don't think it felt, I mean, any different than the last time we played. Last time we played I think was French Open, and he gave me a real ass whooping.

Q. The scoreline was pretty close. It sounds like you don't feel like you were really that close to him in this match. Secondly, where in the hierarchy of great achievements would you put the career Grand Slam?

TOMMY PAUL: I mean, I would say outside of having the most slams, that's pretty much the coolest thing, having all four. Pretty unreal. So if he gets that done, that's amazing, especially at his age right now.

In terms of the match, like, I think I started out a lot better than he did. That game in the first set at 4-3 that I got broken, I didn't make one first serve. I just felt like when I needed to come up with first serves, I didn't. Because of that, I think he took over in the match and took control.

I don't know. I think there were opportunities for me to kind of get going a little bit. But after that first set, it didn't really feel -- I didn't see too many of them, and he closed the gap pretty quick.

Q. How would you assess this first block of tennis here in Australia? Do you have any goals in mind ranking-wise, title-wise in getting back to the States?

TOMMY PAUL: Yeah, obviously I want to get back into the top 10. That's where I feel like I belong. I've got some work to do. Obviously I fell back in the rankings a little bit. I'm overall leaving Australia pretty happy with where my body is at and where my game is at, for not playing for a while. I feel like I jumped right back into it pretty quick. So overall leaving happy.

Q. You mentioned the way this rivalry is tough for you, but it seems like you always come up with some great stuff every time you guys play. It feels like you could make an hour-long highlight reel of your shots just against him. I'm wondering how do you balance kind of knowing that you are going to play a bunch of great rallies with the stuff he does really well? How do you just feel about the matchup in general?

TOMMY PAUL: I think that's the easiest part about playing him. You know you're going to have fun, at least. When we have points like that and the crowd loves it, we love it. You know that you're going to have fun points. You know that you're going to, like, have points you both play great tennis.

I wish we had more of them today, honestly. Obviously for me that means that I'm coming up with shots and being a shot-maker. Obviously we've all seen that he does that.

I wish there were more. That is the fun part about playing Carlos, though.

Q. You played well. The statistics is not bad. What makes difference that prevail that Alcaraz wins, there are few points basically altogether? Is it mental game, or is tennis, like, the way how he returns? What is the difference when you are returning to him compared to other players?

TOMMY PAUL: Sorry. Can you say that again? I wasn't really sure.

Q. What decides the win of the game? Alcaraz, is it more mental game or in crucial game the way how he returns? What's the difference?

TOMMY PAUL: I think today it was his forehand cross was devastating for me, to be quite honest, today. Then I double-faulted on set point down. I missed a backhand in the net, 5-All. Just too many errors. He had way less errors. It seemed like he raised his energy on the big points, and my energy was kind of dropping.

I mean, that's what the best players do every match. So he came up with the goods when I didn't.