Queen’s Club: Tommy Paul makes ‘weaknesses’ revelation as he addresses if grass is his best surface
Tommy Paul is chasing his second Queen’s Club Championships title, and he has addressed whether grass courts give him the best opportunity to challenge Jannik Sinner and Carlos Alcaraz.
The American triumphed on his previous appearance at Queen’s in 2024, and he is now on a seven-match win streak at the ATP 500 event after reaching the quarter-finals at this year’s edition.
Paul downed Zachary Svajda 7-5, 6-3 in the opening round before he defeated Botic van de Zandschulp 7-5(5), 6-3 in the second round.
Prior to his quarter-final clash with Alejandro Davidovich Fokina in London, Paul holds an impressive 27-14 record on grass, giving him a win rate of 65.9% on the surface.
Statistically, grass is comfortably Paul’s best surface ahead of hard-court (61.1%) and clay (58.3%).
The 29-year-old holds a 10-4 record across his four appearances at Wimbledon, and he achieved his best result at the grass-court major in 2024, when he lost to Alcaraz in four sets in the quarter-finals.
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Paul holds a 1-4 record against Sinner, having won the pair’s only grass-court encounter in Eastbourne in 2022, while he is 2-6 against Alcaraz, with his two victories over the Spaniard coming on hard courts at the Canada Masters in 2022 and 2023.
In a mixed zone interview at Queen’s Club, Tennis365 asked Paul if he feels grass helps bring out the best elements of his game and gives him the biggest chance to get close to the very top players.
“Yeah, I won’t go in too much depth, but I think it limits my weaknesses a little bit, which is obviously very good for me,” said Paul.
“I feel like the balls on grass kind of stay in the strike zone a little bit, I feel like I can swing out at a lot more.
“I actually feel sometimes, like if you’re leaning the right way, if you catch a rhythm on return, I actually like returning on grass quite a bit. And you do get a little help on your serve, obviously.
“But I think the grass helps me, yeah.”
Paul was also asked about the courts at the different grass events he has played.
“I think, in general, I’ve played some good grass-court tennis at most of the events,” he said.
“I feel like the conditions here are normally pretty solid. You don’t get too many windy days, maybe I’ve been lucky.
“And then at Wimbledon, pretty similar to here. I feel like I’ve played some really good tennis.
“I mean, I got outplayed in the quarters against Carlos [Alcaraz] two years ago, but I thought I played better maybe in that match than I had in any match here.
“For me, they feel like perfect grass courts here. Here and at Wimbledon, obviously. Maybe at Wimbledon they’ve actually slowed down a little bit, but here, I feel [they are] very traditional grass courts.”
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