HSBC CHAMPIONSHIPS

June 15, 2026

Tommy Paul

Queens Club

Press Conference

T. PAUL/Z. Svajda

7-5, 6-3

THE MODERATOR: Tommy, congratulations on winning the match today. It's your first time playing here since you won the tournament. How does it feel to be back?

TOMMY PAUL: Yeah. First ever all, thank you. Felt great. I absolutely love this club. I love the courts here.

Obviously first match on grass is always a little bit tricky. With Svajda, especially, he's so dangerous off the backhand wing and on returns. So I knew I had to take care of my service games today, and I thought I did a decent job of that.

THE MODERATOR: Questions.

Q. Well done. I wanted to check how are you feeling after last week and what kind of happened there. I guess a good start on the grass now? Nothing to worry about?

TOMMY PAUL: Yeah, exactly. Last week was just really weird. Just woke up with a little kink in my neck. We tried to work on it, and then my back kind of just locked up. Wasn't really able to turn my head or anything.

Obviously we did what we to could to try and play the match. That's why it was so last second. I was trying to get it to loosen up and go out there and play. It didn't happen.

I mean, it's all right, because now we came to Queen's and playing some good tennis, so everything's fine (smiling).

Q. On that, did you, like, practice before the match? How close did you get to...

TOMMY PAUL: Yeah, it was, like, right when I got to the site -- or when I woke up, I felt like a kink, and then I got to the site, and right before I was going to warm up, I saw the physios and tried to get it to loosen up. That was kind of when it happened. Just kind of locked up.

So then we gave it, like, two hours. We were praying for rain. We were like, Oh, if rain comes, we'll be good, you know.

Then there, like, 10 minutes before the match, I tried to hit some balls on the indoor court. My neck wouldn't turn. You know, it's tough to play when your head's locked like this.

Q. You have won a ton of matches this year. 27 is the third-most on tour, outside of Zverev and Sinner. How much does that match up with how you feel you're playing and how you feel your year has gone?

TOMMY PAUL: I mean, that's surprising to me, I guess. I wouldn't say the year has been bad, but definitely doesn't feel like my best year ever, you know.

I do have a title this year, which I hadn't had since two years ago, I guess. So that was nice to kind of start the clay court season.

But, yeah, I feel like I'm very excited to play on the grass. Very excited to play here. I feel like my form is -- I mean, I don't want to jinx myself, but I feel it's pretty good going into the grass court swing.

Q. A lot of players find grass sort of tricky and they're a bit uncomfortable on it. Why do you think it seems to match up to your game really well?

TOMMY PAUL: I don't know. I feel like a lot of it is movement. It's similar -- I mean, it's the complete opposite to clay but similar to clay in the way that so much of playing on the surface is being able to move and being able to move comfortably without, like, the doubt in your mind of slipping.

I mean, it happens. You know, it's grass court tennis. You've just got to, I guess, fall well, because you're going to fall at some point on the grass.

But I don't know. I think my natural game does pretty well on grass. I mean, I try and get to the net as much as possible. It helps my serve a bit. I think it helps everyone's serve. So to be able to serve my way out of trouble, grass helps for that.

I think it's really just balance and, you know, when I get on the grass, the first thing I'm thinking is, like, all right, let's try and get a little lower, try and stay a little lower for the first practice.

I mean, it's tough on the legs. People think grass court, because most of the matches are a little bit quicker, people think it's not very physical, but I could argue you feel your legs more on grass than clay.

Q. So is the movement the footwork aspect or speed around the court? Where do you think your athleticism most comes into play here?

TOMMY PAUL: Well, I could think of a mix of everything, but I think, you know, on grass it's very important to finish your shots, not worry about recovery until after you hit the shot. It's more about quality of ball rather than recovering back to the middle.

Recovering back is a second thought, and I think that's something that we're pretty good at making that switch and trying to have the best quality of the ball and also staying very balanced. You've got to, like, your legs have got to be a little bit more wide-based. I think that's something that, for the most part, when we can, we try and get on the grass as much as we can for footwork drills.

I see all the other players doing it. It's not like people aren't doing it, but I think experience also helps.

Q. Must be about a year ago things were interrupted with your tennis because of some injuries and things like that.

TOMMY PAUL: Yeah.

Q. When you have a situation like you did last week, do some of those thoughts come back to you? You think, oh, not again? How will I get through this? Do I have to be extra careful? How do you handle that on the mental side?

TOMMY PAUL: No, not really, just because they're so different. Like, what I had last year is, I mean, it was coming on for a long time. You saw it coming.

Like, I basically just had, like, a spasm. Nothing you can really do for that other than try and relax a little bit. I mean, I have had a lot of back spasms, so it's completely different from what I was kind of dealing with last year.

So, no, I wouldn't say that really crossed my mind.

Q. When you do come back on the grass, is there a different feeling around it for you compared to other swings? Do you see it as a big opportunity and a big kind of time to push for you?

TOMMY PAUL: I don't know. That's a tricky question, because, I mean, I wouldn't say I go into it, like, Oh, this is a huge opportunity. But at the same time, yeah, I didn't play a lot of tournaments last year, so I'm at the point in my year where I kind of feel like every tournament is an opportunity to move up in the rankings, you know.

I know I'm comfortable on this surface. I know I have had pretty good results on this surface. So I like to go into the matches thinking, like, yeah, this guy is going to have to play very good to beat me, and if he does, too good. That's kind of my mindset.

Q. You talked about how serve is really important on grass. For serve and returns specifically, how do you personally adapt from clay to grass? What do you change specifically?

TOMMY PAUL: On grass, like, I guess I would cut the serve a little bit more, a little bit more slice serves. I would say more body serves.

And then on return, I think just my split step, I like to keep it lower. On clay, you have a little bit more time. You can kind of have, like, a more dramatic split step. On grass, if you have a dramatic split step and you try and push off in one direction, that's where you slip. It's important to keep your feet grounded.