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Paris – Roland-Garros 2025 has been a proving ground for American tennis. There were eight American – five women and three men – into the round of 16, the most since 1985, and on Sunday, two men powered into the quarterfinals with inspired performance.
Tommy Paul, playing in Paris ten years after winning the junior title, was the first to go through. The 28-year-old has been battling an ab strain as he cleared back-to-back five-setters to reach the second week. He took out Alexei Popyrin in straights sets to set a quarterfinal clash with Carlos Alcaraz.
Frances Tiafoe was the second to make it through. Remarkable to see a player that lost his first six main draw matches at Roland-Garros become the first American man to reach the quarterfinals without dropping a set in Paris since 1995. After his third-round win over Sebastian Korda, Tiafoe talked about a pre-tournament practice in which he hit a boiling point. The American, seeded 15 in Paris, said he just boiled over with frustration as he caught himself going through the motions and accepting his fate during a so-so clay season that saw him lose six times to players ranked lower than him.
Perhaps that was the moment that Tiafoe decided to simply get back to basics? He is hugging the baseline like he does on hard courts, and playing aggressive tennis. During his third-round match against Korda, he was seeing the ball big, smacking return winners, practically at will.
This four-match stretch in Paris, capped by a 6/3 6/4 7/6(4) win over Daniel Altmaier on Day 8 in Paris, is what happens when a talented player becomes fed up with losing.
Here’s how Tiafoe recalled that pivotal pre-tournament moment: “I broke a racquet a couple of days before the tournament. I was holding a lot of my emotions in, just being like, ‘Yeah, you know, being positive, it's all good, whatever.’
“I got killed in practice a couple of days before. Then had to practice again. Playing sets with a guy, and I'm getting my butt kicked there. Then found a way to kind of win that set, and I was telling my team that was kind of a big day. Not only that I had emotion, but then solved it in real time – not after the fact… I think after that I kind of faced what was really going on.”
And it’s a revival for Tiafoe. It’s the first time that Tiafoe has won four consecutive matches since his trip to the US Open quarterfinals last September.
“I'm competing at the highest level, and I have an ego,” Tiafoe told reporters. “I have a certain standard that I want to play at. When you're not doing that, it's very frustrating.
“At the same time, what's amazing about tennis is week to week, anything can happen. You have to pen your own story. Win one match, win two matches, by the time you know it, now you're sitting here talking about being in the quarters. Everything else that happened for eight months, nine months, it almost didn't happen. It's irrelevant.”
Now that he's unlocked, with the most important part of his season looming this summer in New York, we can only wonder if there's more inspired tennis to come. Likely, yes.
Tiafoe will face Italy’s Lorenzo Musetti in the quarterfinals.