NEW YORK\u00a0\u2014 The noise. It\u2019s everywhere in Louis Armstrong Stadium here at the U.S. Open. It\u2019s a constant, incessant din from the crowd, and the nearby No. 7 subway train, and all the bells and whistles that come with playing in New York City.<\/p>\n
Some tennis players hate it. Tommy Paul thrives on it, and it\u2019s part of why he loves the U.S. Open, and why it has frustrated him so much that he hasn\u2019t succeeded here as much as he\u2019d like.<\/p>\n
\u201cI very much enjoy the loud noise on Armstrong,\u201d Paul said Friday. \u201cI think it’s a lot of fun, and it’s different, you know? I think that’s what separates the U.S. Open from other slams and makes it more fun for people to attend.\u201d<\/p>\n
The noise crescendoed for the Greenville native Friday in his third-round battle with No. 15 Alexander Bublik.<\/p>\n
In a rematch of their five-set duel here last year, won by Bublik, things went very differently at the end this time.<\/p>\n
Friday, it was the No.15 seed Paul who dominated the final two sets, at one point winning 11 of 12 games en route to a 6-4, 3-6, 6-7, 6-1, 6-3 win.<\/p>\n
It sets up a mouth-watering Round of 16 matchup Sunday with No. 2 seed Carlos Alcaraz.<\/p>\n
\u201cObviously the crowd at every tournament loves Carlos, but you know, I am American, so hopefully they can get behind me a little bit,\u201d Paul said with a smile. \u201cAnd I think we\u2019ll get to play on a big stadium court.\u201d<\/p>\n
Last year, Paul\u2019s body was breaking down before he even took the court against Bublik, the wildly talented but wildly erratic Kazakh. He had just played a five-setter against Nuno Borges, a 4 hours and 25 minute slugfest that ended near 2 a.m.<\/p>\n
The North Carolinian admitted before the Open started last week that even if he\u2019d beaten Bublik in \u201925, he wouldn\u2019t have been able to compete beyond that.<\/p>\n
Paul said his second-round match on Wednesday felt like a tale of two different matches, when he ousted Croatia\u2019s Dino Prizmic in four sets.<\/p>\n
Well, Friday\u2019s tilt before a packed Armstrong crowd, with his superfan Eddie leading the cheers from Section 2, was also like watching two separate matches.<\/p>\n
The first three sets were tight, with Paul using a break at 4-all in the first set to snag the lead. In the second set Bublik, who often seems to value trying highlight-reel shots as much as winning, dialed in in the eighth game of the set, breaking Paul\u2019s serve with a deep return that forced a Paul backhand into the net.<\/p>\n
After the third set was won by Bublik in a tiebreak, both players left the court.<\/p>\n
\u201cI kind of took a second and came back out and just wanted to focus on getting my energy up and putting as many returns in the court as I could, and raising my first-serve percentage. And I feel like that was kind of a difference.\u201d<\/p>\n
The final two sets raced by in a blur. Paul broke three times in the fourth to level the match, with Bublik performing his usual \u201cgive up\u201d move by trying an underhand serve at one point.<\/p>\n
Then in the fifth, Paul sped out to a 5-0 lead before Bublik threw a scare into the crowd by winning three straight games.<\/p>\n
\u201cI’m sure he was probably thinking, like, all right, let’s get this (fourth) set done and roll into the fifth set and come out with good energy. Then, yeah, I mean, in the fifth, I thought I started the set really well. That was super important for me. Probably the most important 15 minutes of the match, honestly.\u201d<\/p>\n
And now, Alcaraz awaits. Paul said he\u2019s played the Spaniard who\u2019s already won seven Slam titles more than any other player on the ATP Tour, an assessment that was confirmed by the ATP Friday night.<\/p>\n
Alcaraz has gotten the best of the former Elmhurst Elementary School student six of eight times, but quite a few of the matches have been close. And Paul\u2019s two wins over Alcaraz have come on hardcourts like the ones here.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think he’s really dangerous for everyone on the tour,\u201d Alcaraz said Friday. \u201cThe way he plays, the way he hits the ball, it’s really complicated to dominate the ball, dominate the points. It’s kind of difficult to play against him. I’m excited. I’m really looking forward to playing him once again. Great battles. He’s such a nice guy. We just feel like we\u2019re having fun, we pull off great points, great shots. It’s going to be really fun to watch, fun to play, as well.<\/p>\n
\u201cI will be ready, for sure, and I gotta be at my 100% if I want to get through.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"NEW YORK\u00a0\u2014 The noise. It\u2019s everywhere in Louis Armstrong Stadium here at the U.S. Open. It\u2019s a constant,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":66291,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[410,271,24575,14189,514],"class_list":["post-66290","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-alexander-bublik","tag-alexander-bublik","tag-carlos-alcaraz","tag-louis-armstrong","tag-noise","tag-united-states"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/66290","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=66290"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/66290\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/66291"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=66290"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=66290"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=66290"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}