Tommy Paul caps a memorable week in Houston with title, after saving three championship points

Last week on tour, Tommy Paul saw four match points come and go, one after another, in a seemingly devastating loss to Arthur Fils in the Miami Open quarterfinals.

This week, Paul saved three match points, then broke serve the next game to remain alive, before defeating Roman Andres Burruchaga in the U.S. Men’s Clay Court Championship final.

True to his word, Paul was “a week-to-week kind of guy,” turning agony to ecstasy in just a matter of days.

“What a week,” Paul said, as he stepped to the microphone for his winner’s speech.

Fans watching Paul this week in Houston, and media covering him, would never have sensed any scar tissue from Miami. The world No. 18 turned the page as the surface turned to clay; any time the subject was raised in press, the 28-year-old calmly assured that everything was behind him. (That said, Paul’s coach Brad Stine was up until the wee hours that night in Miami, replaying the match in his mind.)

Paul proved it right from the start of his run at River Oaks Country Club. Relative unknown Adolfo Daniel Vallejo put him in an early one-set hole before the American dug himself out, slide by slide, shot by shot. He then comprehensively ousted the talented Tomas Martin Etcheverry, then outlasted friend—and, in this case, foe—Frances Tiafoe, 7-5, 4-6, 7-6 (7), in the semis.

Tiafoe, who himself saved a match point in victory in the quarterfinals against Alexei Popyrin, was prescient when he told me on Monday,

You’ve got to have amnesia in this sport to be able to play at a high level. Any week can kind of turn the page to then do something great. Frances Tiafoe on Tommy Paul

“He’s doing fine, he’s a hell of a player—he’s gonna be ready to go for this week.”

Never more so than in the final, facing championship points. All three came with Paul serving at 3-5. Burruchaga, a 24-year-old who was playing his first ATP Tour final, erred on his first two opportunities, and Paul negated the third with a calm volley at net.

“I was kind of just, let’s make him play,” Paul told Tennis Channel afterward. “Normally on those kind of points, I’m trying to play more aggressive, but I think today, I knew the situation. I knew it was his first final, I wanted to make him win it.

“I wanted to make him play those points. He obviously was looking for an error from me.”

Burruchaga, who won an ATP Challenger Tour final on clay last week in Sao Paolo, was rattled, and dropped the next three games to conclude the 6-1, 3-6, 7-5 match. His surname is best known in Argentina because his father, Jorge, scored the World Cup-winning goal for la Albiceleste in 1986, but Roman Andres is now making a name for himself.

In Paul’s victory speech, he touched on two things quintessentially Houston, as it relates to the city’s tennis tournament. After congratulating Burruchaga on his breakthrough week, the very first people he thanked weren’t his team on site, or his family back home. It was Jim and the Flores family, for letting Paul stay in their home while in Houston.

“It’s the best housing ever,” said Paul, who was not alone in such praise. Doubles champion Ben Shelton stays with a host family in Houston, as well as Tiafoe, Learner Tien, Jackson Withrow and Mackie McDonald. Some of these (lovely) homes are just steps away from the tournament site, and the relationship goes beyond the week the tour comes to town. McDonald and his fiancé have been staying with the same family for so long, they’re coming to the wedding.

“It’s something super awesome,” McDonald told me earlier this week. “This is one of the few tournaments in the world now that actually does housing.”

It’s also one of the few tournaments that makes you feel like you’ve stepped back in time. While many ATP and WTA events, particularly at the higher levels, have modernized at the expense of their past, the U.S. Clay Courts, which began in 1931, unapologetically embraces its history. There’s a Gastby-esque feel to the unassuming venue; this is not a Texas-sized tournament. It’s a social scene reminiscent of the old Newport Casino, with wooden grandstands awash in green, and folding chairs for longstanding patrons. Men in double-breasted suits watch doubles in the stadium. Ladies look like they’re headed to a gala, but they’re here for the tennis.

“It makes us feel special when you guys dress up to come watch us,” said Paul.

Besides the stunning fashion, you’ll see two more items throughout the crowd: full bottles of champagne, toted in chilled bags, and Planter’s Punch—an alcoholic concoction served in Styrofoam cups.

At this ATP 250, the vibes, and the drink, are strong.

“If you come around the grounds,” says tournament director Bronwynn Greer, “tradition is what we are.”

River Oaks will celebrate the 100^th edition of its annual red-clay tournament in five years, and as much as the event keeps to its past, Greer is looking to its future.

“That is something that we are already talking about,” she says. “I talked to Brian Shelton and said, save the date! (Ben won the singles title in 2023.) We want to get all of the former champs back.”

See you in 2031, Tommy Paul.