American incoming: Tommy Paul strikes dominant pose at career-best US Open

WATCH: How far can Tommy Paul go at the US Open?

NEW YORK—Tommy Paul has come a long way from qualies.

The No. 14 seed regaled the media with a description of his family’s annual pilgrimages from North Carolina to the US Open’s qualifying tournament—now known as Fan Week. The chaotic scenes proved unlikely foreshadowing for his victorious Arthur Ashe Stadium debut on Friday, a 6-1, 6-0, 3-6, 6-3 demolition of Alejandro Davidovich Fokina that put him into the fourth round.

“Every year we always had something terrible happen,” smiled the No. 14 seed, wearing a Philadelphia Eagles cap. “Like, one year my sister got like bit by a poisonous spider and got sliced open, went to the emergency room here.

“Then the next year, somebody dislocated their shoulder or something while playing. My mom is bad with pain, and she passed out and hit her head. We went to the same place in Ashe. We were like, ‘This is like so cool. We're inside Arthur Ashe Stadium.’ But we went to the same doctor. They remembered us from the year before. They were like, ‘You guys can't stay out of here.’”

Still, it took Paul a couple tries to get as comfortable at the USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center as a player as he was a spectator, and even longer to achieve that elusive Ashe invitation—so long that it took the 25-year-old by complete surprise when the schedule dropped on Thursday.

It's like inspiring to see people that we practice with every day, people that we feel like we all know that we can beat each other. And then when one of us does super well in a tournament it's inspiring to us to go do it ourselves. Tommy Paul

“I thought I was going to be later in the afternoon on, like, Armstrong,” he said, having re-christened Court 17 with an unforgettable five-set comeback in the second round. “So, when I got first up on Ashe I was kind of, like, ‘Really, they're putting me on Ashe?’

“I knew there was a pretty strong schedule of people. Novak is in my half, Fritz, 'Foe,” he added of good friend Frances Tiafoe. “We all know 'Foe likes prime time. Prime time tennis on Ashe.”

Well, not quite prime time: the sleepy 12PM timeslot and sleepier performance from Davidovich Fokina kept Paul from feeling the totality of what an Ashe has to offer, at least until the Spaniard forced a fourth set and unwittingly fulfilled an old American jinx.

“We have, like, a thing between most of the Americans where we think when people win a set 6-0 it's, like, a curse that you always lose the next set,” he said to laughter from the press. “To be honest, like, I was thinking about it there in the third. I was looking up at my team, I was, like, ‘Oh, God, like I'm going to win this set 6-0.’ I was serving 5-0. I was like, ‘Oh, no!’”

A typically more reserved presence—on the court and off—Paul is nonetheless enjoying the attention that comes with being a legitimate contender to end the 20-year drought for U.S. men at major tournaments, joking about his absent-minded habit of spinning his racquet “like a big fidget spinner.”

Perhaps it helps that, despite arriving to the Open with the experience of a first Grand Slam semifinal in Australia and a second win over world No. 1 Carlos Alcaraz in Canada, he’s still in somewhat uncharted territory at his home Slam.

“Obviously around the grounds everyone is really stoked and excited about the Americans. Every time I pass one of the TVs here, it's, like, ‘Is an American gonna win, like, a slam for the first time, 20 years?’” he said, noting Andy Roddick’s 2003 win. “You see a lot of it.

“I'm just really excited to play every match. Like, I'm doing things I have never done. Never been to the fourth round of the Open, never played on Ashe, never won on Ashe.”

And he’s still accessible enough to be making memories with fans, whether it’s signing literal TP or inviting young Eddie of Court 17 fame to join him on Ashe against Davidovich Fokina.

“I think we got him tickets to our box or something, but he ended up getting better tickets right on the side of the court!” he said, unsure exactly when in September his biggest fan will have to start school.

“I was definitely hearing him. He definitely got louder after I lost the third, which was cool. I went and talked to him a little bit after, but it's really cool to have him here. I'm hoping he becomes famous or something.”

Paul may become famous first as he takes his place at the forefront of a quartet of in-form American men still alive in Flushing Meadows—next opponent Ben Shelton, who perhaps inauspiciously won a 6-0 set of his own to defeat Aslan Karatsev, joining him in the second week. Taylor Fritz has dropped just 10 games in two matches while Tiafoe, who clinched a fourth set against Adrian Mannarino, is scheduled to join Paul and captain Bob Bryan for Davis Cup in the fall.

“They all came up together,” notes the former ATP doubles No. 1 in a press conference held before play. “A lot of them were training in Boca as teenagers together, just knocking heads, really pushing each other. They dominated the ITF juniors.

“Unfortunately, a lot of generations have been snuffed out by the big three or four and have been forgotten. Luckily, they're coming at a time where there's a changing of the guard, and this is really their time.”

Set to face Shelton in a rematch of their Australian Open quarterfinal, Paul has adopted an “all for one, one for all” approach to the mini-competition amongst his fellow musketeers.

“In no way would I say jealousy between us,” he said. “It's like inspiring to see people that we practice with every day, people that we feel like we all know that we can beat each other. And then when one of us does super well in a tournament it's inspiring to us to go do it ourselves.”

After all, it wasn’t that long ago that he was on the bleachers, now on a highway to the President’s Box.