Tommy Paul is in the Rolex Paris Masters quarter-finals, against Ben Shelton. And what I take from it isn’t the draw. It’s the schedule.
His coach Brad Stine told L’Equipe that after the US Open they cut the Davis Cup and the Laver Cup for a two-week training block, “to get back to playing and clear his head”. Two weeks. To get back to playing. And clear his head.
I asked my club league captain for the same thing in September (interclubs, Belgium’s weekend team league). Skip two Sundays to rework my forehand patterns. She told me we were already short of women for the doubles. That’s the difference between the top 15 and me: not the level, the staff saying yes.
Stine also says the goal isn’t Turin but finishing the year in the top 10, which Paul has never done. He was 12th at the end of 2024. Twelfth, two places off the line. I know the feeling. I wait for my AFT ranking (the French-speaking federation’s) every January like a verdict, and I’m still half a category away from where I should be. Two practice sessions away, mind you.
And Paul said: “If I have to go to Turin, I’ll go to Turin. Otherwise I’ll go home and fish”. Now that’s a clear intention. Two options, not three. Singles, basically.
In Couvin, we went fishing on Sundays. Nobody announced in advance that you had to lose first.
Against Shelton, I’ll mostly watch his return zone on the serve. That’s where two weeks of block work show up, or don’t. As for me, my block starts in May.
It’s true, we checked: We Love Tennis.
