MUBADALA DC OPEN

July 26, 2026

Tommy Paul

Press Conference

THE MODERATOR: Tommy, welcome back to D.C. Do you want to give us your initial thoughts on being back in the city?

TOMMY PAUL: Super excited. It's been a while for me. Last year I wasn't able to play, and then the year before I think Olympics or something, so I wasn't able to play.

But it's good to be back. I was talking with my coach. This is like one of the first big tournaments that I played, so I've got a lot of great memories here. Always excited playing here.

I mean, I feel like I usually play pretty well here, so very excited.

THE MODERATOR: Questions.

Q. Congrats to you and Paige. I want to ask if you have any plans for the rest of the season to take some time off the court, honeymoon, fish, or are you locked in for the rest of the season?

TOMMY PAUL: Thank you. We kind of did, like, half a honeymoon in Nantucket, which is mostly fishing, God bless her. Doing a little bit of training, so I'm sure she's going to want something just to herself later in the season.

Q. Kind of on that similar note, talking about the wedding, how did it feel having all of your fellow players there, and can you tell maybe any funny stories or anything from the wedding among any of the guys?

TOMMY PAUL: I mean, it was amazing. You know, it was so cool. I feel like we don't -- I mean, we get together and do dinners on the road and stuff, but we don't, like, get together and do something that's not tennis-related at all very much at all. So it was really cool to have everyone there.

I think we had the best time. Obviously I had the best time, and I hope they did, too. But we had so much fun at the wedding, after the wedding, before the wedding, all of it. It was amazing.

Q. Moving into hard court season, just curious, how do you feel about your game now, and is there anything that you want to work on this week in D.C. before the rest of the hard court tournaments?

TOMMY PAUL: Yeah, I feel pretty good. Obviously I wasn't doing a ton of training at least two weeks ago, and then last week I ramped it up. This is a super important time for all the Americans. I mean, for everybody, but especially Americans. This is where we want to do our best and play our best.

So, I mean, I feel like we've done a pretty good job of maintaining, I mean, the level and maintaining our fitness throughout the past couple of weeks. Yeah, I mean, like I said before, I mean, most of the times I come here, I feel like I strike the ball very clean. That really wasn't the case last week in Florida. I feel like I was playing terrible, and then I got here, and everything seemed to feel pretty good.

Overall I feel pretty happy. Definitely excited for, I mean, not just this tournament, but all the tournaments in the U.S.

Q. As we reach kind of the midpoint or past the midpoint of the season, can you reflect on the first half of the year and how you feel and perhaps looking forward to things you want to achieve this season?

TOMMY PAUL: Yeah, I mean, I think the first half of the season, I mean, I won a lot of matches, but it's weird because I lost a lot of finals, you know? Obviously you have to win a lot of matches to make it to finals, but it was a lot of letdown so far this year in my opinion.

A lot of people have been telling me, oh, what a great year, you've been playing great, but I mean, as tennis players, especially me, I look at the matches that I lost and try to learn from them, but those are the matches that I remember. So I'm not like, oh, I've been playing great this year, even though I've won quite a few matches.

But obviously going through the rest of the year, I want the bigger trophies, not the smaller ones. That's the goal.

Q. I was just going to ask you about that. You've obviously lost a lot of finals and a couple of other heartbreakers, but it doesn't seem watching them that there's consistent patterns between each one. I wonder, looking at them, what you are able to take away from those, or is it just when you're in the final, kind of one guy has to lose?

TOMMY PAUL: When you make the finals, you want to obviously take away -- your takeaway is going into the next week I'm playing good tennis, and most of these were lead-up to big events, like Masters 1000s or slams.

I was going into these tournaments, into the bigger tournaments, pretty confident, you know, because I'm stringing a bunch of matches together. Like you said, none of the losses were, like, the same kind of losses. They were all very different. I think that's a good thing, right?

I mean, one will definitely go my way here soon.

Q. Just throwing it back a little bit, not completely to the wedding, but you had a group of players there that you've known your whole life down in Florida. You guys all pretty much live in that same area, train together. Especially also the new American kids coming up as well. What do you think of that sort of relationship formation group that you guys have pushing each other, training together? Is that something beneficial to you all, as we keep sort of talking -- as we're approaching the next Grand Slam, and we keep talking about the next Americans to get above that hump?

TOMMY PAUL: Yeah, I definitely think it's beneficial. I think we all push each other. I think we all not just result-wise, but in training. I think that's super healthy competition amongst all of us.

Then, like you said, the younger Americans, I mean, with Learner and Michel, they're also in South Florida with us now, and Ethan. I think it's great. I'm playing against them, so I'm not trying to give them all the tricks or anything.

But, I mean, especially Ethan for me. He's somebody who he's kind of been in some kind of way under my wing a little bit. I think it's helped him, and I think it's helped me, and I think it's helped Fritz and all the older Americans. So I think it's a great thing overall.