Tommy Paul has recorded the biggest win of his career to date after stunning third seed Alexander Zverev in the second round of the BNP Paribas Open.
The 24-year-old held his nerve to prevail over the former Grand Slam finalist 6-2, 4-6, 7-6 (2), after more than two hours of action. Paul was two games away from defeat after trailing 2-4 in the deciding set before clawing his way back to level. He then went on to prevail in the tiebreaker. Zverev is the highest ranked player he has ever beaten on the Tour and it is the fourth time he has defeated a top 10 opponent.
“It’s great,” tennis.com quoted Paul as saying following the match. “I played a really high level today. Last time I played him I think I played well and put pressure on him, so I knew how I wanted to play him, and I came out and executed it well.
“It got kinda crazy there in the second set, and I got lucky a little bit in the end, but I played well when it came down to the breaker, so I’m happy with my performance.”
It is the second time in his career that the world No.39 has beaten Zverev after also getting the better of him back in 2020 at the Acapulco Open. In their latest clash, Paul hit 28 winners against 31 unforced errors and won 78% of his first service points.
The triumph comes during what has been a solid start to 2022 for the American who has reached the quarter-finals or better at four out of his last five tournaments prior to Indian Wells. Last year at Indian Wells he also scored a big upset in the men’s draw by knocking out Russia’s Andrey Rublev who was ranked fifth in the world at the time.
“I’ve been playing well, practicing well and working hard,” he said. “I’m happy to be here, I always play well here, last year I played really well so I don’t know—sometimes when you play well somewhere you can come back and kind of carry that momentum.”
Meanwhile, Zverev will now head to Miami hoping to make up for his recent disappointment. This week was the first time he had played on the Tour since being disqualified from the Acapulco Open after swearing at the umpire and hitting his chair with his racket. The German is now serving a suspended ban which means he can’t commit another similar offence within the next 11 months if he wishes to avoid serving a suspension.
Paul will take on Australia’s Alex de Minaur in the third round.
