Tommy Paul created history at the French Open 2025 on Sunday after the 28-year-old became the first American since Andre Agassi in 2003 to make the quarterfinals of the Roland Garros. Seeded 12th at the French Open 2025, Paul defeated 25th-seeded Alexei Popyrin of Australia 6-3, 6-3, 6-3 in less than two hours at the Court Suzanne Lenglen.

Paul also became the only active American player to reach the last eight on all three surfaces after his 2023 Australian Open semifinal and 2024 Wimbledon quarterfinal runs. After hard-fought wins over Marton Fucsovics and Karen Khachanov, Paul found it easy against Popyrin.

He found himself a break down after the first game, before immediately resetting the match’s trajectory, breaking straight back to correct his early setback. In fact, Paul’s superior movement and clinical shot-making made it difficult for Popyrin.

All you need to know about Tommy Paul

Introduced to the game of tennis at a very young age of seven by his parents in his hometown of Greenville in North Carolina, Paul has been on top form in his juniors. He also reached a career-high rank of no.3 in the ITF juniors as of 2015.

In the junior circuit, Paul reached two Grand Slam finals, including a French Open boys’ singles title in 2015. He had also reached the finals in doubles with William Blumberg as his partner. He burst onto the scene at the 2023 Australian Open when he reached the semifinals, including wins over Roberto Bautista Agut and Alejandro Davidovich Fokina.

Notably, Paul is just the ninth American man in the Open Era and only active American to advance to Grand Slam quarterfinals on all three surfaces. He thus joined Andre Agassi, Michael Chang, Jim Courier, Vitas Gerulaitis, Brian Gottfried, John McEnroe and Pete Sampras in that list.