Tommy Paul has become the first American man since Andy Roddick in 2009 to reach the semi-finals of the Australian Open after ousting promising prospect Ben Shelton in four sets.
Paul, who is currently ranked 35th in the world, battled for more than three hours on the court before prevailing 7-6(6), 6-3, 5-7, 6-4, over his 20-year-old opponent. He has become only the third active American male player to reach the last four of a Grand Slam tournament after John Isner and Frances Tiafoe. Before this year the 25-year-old had never gone beyond the third round of a major and had only won 11 matches in 13 appearances at Grand Slam events.
“This is my first time on this court and in the quarter-finals of a Slam,” Paul said afterwards.
“It’s actually Shelton’s first time leaving the States so I think he had a pretty good trip as well.
“Yesterday I was doing a couple of interviews and they were asking how I felt to be in the quarter-finals. I was like ‘semi-finals sounds a little better’ so I’m pumped to be there and obviously really excited for whoever I play on Friday.
“Making it to the second weekend of a Slam is everyone’s dream when they start playing tennis so I can’t believe I’m here right now.”
The triumph ends what has been a fairytale run for rising tar Shelton who had never travelled outside of America until this month. Shelton, who is currently a student at the University of Florida, burst onto the scene last year by winning a trio of Challenger titles and eventually cracked the top 100 for the first time in November.
In their Australian Open clash, Paul hit a total of 32 winners against 26 unforced errors and broke his opponent three times. He was a break up in the third set before Shelton battled back to take the match into a fourth frame. Paul then failed to convert his first match point when leading 5-4 in the fourth before sealing victory in the following game.
“I’m really happy to get through that match, man,” he said. “There wasn’t too much rhythm in the match, but Ben’s a very tough player to play against and he’s going to be in many more matches like this, so I think everyone should be really excited for that kid.”
Paul could next play nine-time champion Novak Djokovic if the Serbian gets through his quarter-final clash with Russia’s Andrey Rublev. He currently has six wins over top-10 players so far in his career with four of those victories occurring last season.
