By Richard Pagliaro | Wednesday, January 21, 2026Photo credit: Australian Open Facebook
Tommy Paul has reached the Australian Open semifinals and cracked the world’s Top 10 last January.
All of his professional experience infuses Paul with words of wisdom for junior players: Go to college.
Asked if he would change anything about his career, Paul told the media in Melbourne Park he’d go to school if he could do it all over again.
“I tell everyone, if I were to do it again, I would have gone to school, would have gone to Georgia,” Paul said. “I committed to play at Georgia and then turned pro after winning the Junior French Open.
“I kind of wasted a couple of years after turning pro. At least in my eyes it felt like that. So, yeah, especially the way that it is now, people getting paid to go play in school, I would tell a lot of people thatare 17, 18 to go to school.”
The 19th-seeded Paul has applied his major education effectively at this Australian Open.
The 2025 quarterfinalist has swept all six sets he’s played, beating Aleksandar Kovacevic and Thiago Agustin Tirante to set up a third-round rematch vs. Spaniard and sometime practice partner Alejandro Davidovich Fokina.
The 20th-ranked Paul is 4-0 lifetime vs. Davidovich Fokina with two of the four wins coming in Melbourne Park, including a 6-1, 6-1, 6-1 thrashing in the 2025 fourth round.
“It’s going to be a battle. We play two times here,” Davidovich Fokina said of Paul. “The firsttime was in five sets, he beat me. And I was dead last year. I will not count that one.
“But every time I practice or play against him, he always putting a lot of pressure, even when he’s serving and returning. So we kind of have similar game, it can be, but maybe I’m a little bit more aggressive than him.”
The good news for Paul, who battled injuries during the second half of the 2025 season, is he feels close to 100 percent physically and says he’s moving more freely than he has since last May.
“It’s been basically, I would say, since Madrid really where I walked onto the court not really too worried about anything,” Paul said. “I mean, it’s definitely a really good feeling. It makes me feel a bit more relaxed going into the match just knowing that my body is going to be able to hold up, and I’m not really worried about anything other than my tennis. So it’s a good feeling.”
