AUSTRALIAN OPEN

January 19, 2026

Tommy Paul

Press Conference

T. PAUL/A. Kovacevic

6-4, 6-3, 6-3

THE MODERATOR: A really solid start today. What kind of confidence does that give you going into a Grand Slam?

TOMMY PAUL: Yeah, it's nice. You know, I had a couple of matches before coming here to Melbourne to kind of get to know my level, but today it was very different. It seemed like the court we played on today was much faster than a lot of the courts.

I don't know if that was temperature or the courts are just faster, but it took a little while to get in the rhythm from the ground, but luckily, I came out serving really well today.

THE MODERATOR: Questions.

Q. You talked about shutting down the season early gave you an opportunity to have an earlier preseason. I'm just curious how you're feeling the effects of that on court this month.

TOMMY PAUL: Yeah, I'm feeling pretty good (smiling). Like I said before, I had a lot of opportunities to play points in December coming into the first couple of tournaments of the year. I knew my level a little bit better.

Obviously match play in tournaments is very different than in practice, but it was nice to have that under my belt coming down here.

Q. What was it like battling your body all last year?

TOMMY PAUL: Not fun. I was dealing with a lot.

Q. Pretty much from, like, French on?

TOMMY PAUL: Here too last year. Here I was dealing with -- like, I had a tear in my left shoulder. Weirdest injury ever. It didn't really hurt or anything besides coming down on the serve and the backhand a little bit, but it was pretty much all year last year.

We talked about it. I think there was, like, four matches I played the whole year where I wasn't in pain, which was ridiculous. So that's obviously number one goal going forward. And this year is to try and stay as pain-free as we can, take care of the body as much as we can.

I know it's been a focus of mine for years now, but at some point, you know, something breaks down, it just happens. But, you know, the only thing you can do is keep taking care of your body.

Q. Just sort of what was the process like of, okay, I'm broken, I'm ending the season? How do I get myself back to where I don't wake up in the morning on the first day in Melbourne and think, what hurts and what do I have to mitigate?

TOMMY PAUL: So, yeah, I knew around -- I mean, I really knew around French Open, beginning of French Open I knew at some point in the year I was going to have to be shutting it down. I kind of just extended maybe a little too long. Probably shouldn't have gone and played Wimbledon. Probably shouldn't have played US Open.

At the same time I'm happy I did it. I think the time that I stopped was good, right after the Open. Got to stay home for a bit, fully reset my mind to get ready for this year. In some sort of ways it was a blessing for me, you know, to be home, fully reset, get completely healthy.

It had been, like I said, it had been eight months at the time I was really fully healthy. It was definitely necessary (smiling).

Q. I wanted to ask you and Paige launching Kids Outdoors. What can you tell us about that?

TOMMY PAUL: Yeah, it's an exciting thing. It's something we talked about doing for a while now. I think it's something that means a lot to both of us. Both of us had so many opportunities given to us through sports growing up, and I think anything that we can do to help, we're going to try and do it.

Q. How does that manifest for you?

TOMMY PAUL: I think we're going to do some stuff. We haven't got the ball rolling down in South Florida yet, but I definitely want to give back to my community in Eastern North Carolina and also South Florida. Maybe it's going to be, like, after-school program for under-privileged kids or even bringing kids out to -- there's quite a few tournaments in South Florida, like Delray or Miami, and getting a group of kids that have never been to tournaments and just getting kids excited about tennis, getting kids excited about being outside.

Q. Specifically tennis or more broadly, like, just outdoor activities?

TOMMY PAUL: My side of it is going to be tennis, because that's obviously what I'm involved in. Paige is going to do a lot of stuff in terms of, I guess in terms of tennis, she gets a lot of brand deals around these tournaments that she goes to, and she's going to be donating a portion of the money that she makes from her brand deals to this.

Q. For the physical struggles last year, can you see building in more breaks into your general calendar or at the end of the year if it makes sense?

TOMMY PAUL: It's a good question, because it's something that we've tried to do the. You know, we've tried to plan our schedule smart. We've tried to take breaks when necessary, but it's a demanding schedule.

There's only so much that you can really skip if you want to keep your ranking up. So, yeah, we're going to do our best, for sure. I think maybe we'll skip a couple more tournaments this year, but for the most part, I do want to play everything.

I'm excited about playing all the tournaments that I wasn't feeling good in last year. I want to go and do even better this year, of course.

Q. You've had success here obviously. How much of a veteran do you feel like? You're 28.

TOMMY PAUL: It's happening. I'm getting older. I'm seeing a bunch of kids come through. That seems so young now.

But, I mean, I think for me it helps. Experience, it means a lot in this sport. I feel like you gain a lot from experience coming down here. Playing in the first round when you are in your younger years, you feel so nervous. You don't know really what you're getting yourself into.

I mean, I know what I'm getting myself into every time I play. Three out of five sets, it's very challenging on the body, but I think over the years, I've learned how to deal with that, how to manage that.

I mean, it's tough to beat high-ranked players three out of five. Even if they're not playing well, they're going to compete their ass off for three out of five. It's not easy to beat them.

Q. What do you make of someone like Michael Zheng who has never played in a Grand Slam, five sets?

TOMMY PAUL: Yeah, it's amazing. I didn't really know too much about him until later in the year last year, which is kind of weird, because when I'm not playing, I'm not watching too much tennis, but his name kept coming up, so I wanted to know a little bit more about him.

I mean, he's an impressive kid. He plays great tennis. I'm excited to see where his career goes here in the next couple of months even.

Q. Just expanding on that, there's something like 20 American men in the draw this year. Just the depth of American tennis right now...

TOMMY PAUL: Yeah, it's amazing. We talk about it with my coach all the time. I mean, the way that tennis used to be back in the '80s and '90s, it was pretty dominated by American tennis. Not just at the top of the game, but in numbers in the top 100.

We're trying to get back to the numbers in the top 100, and hopefully at some point we can get somebody that dominates the game, that would be the most ideal for us.

I mean, it's exciting. We have an awesome group, especially the younger guys coming up still. I love watching and cheering for American tennis, so it's awesome for me.

Q. When you have injuries all over your body, where do you start? Core, legs? What did Franco do?

TOMMY PAUL: I don't really know. It started, I guess -- the weird one was the left shoulder.

Q. Rebuild it. Like after you rested when you got back, what's the focus?

TOMMY PAUL: I guess, as you take time off, your body stiffens up. First thing's first is getting all the mobility back in your joints and your legs, your hips.

Then from there, it's kind of building a bit of cardio, which is hard to do, because, I mean, you don't want to do impact when you are hurting, so we're doing no-impact cardio, which means probably you have to do more of it.

I mean, it was a lot of long days. Spent a lot of time on the body. Yeah, I mean, it's the same stuff. Just trying to limit the amount of impact on the body.