Tommy Paul becomes champion at Queen’s ‘one of the coolest tournaments in the world’
Tommy Paul says the Americans are in healthy competition as he won the 2024 Queen’s championship and became his nation’s new No. 1.
Paul beat out Musetti in straight sets 6-1, 7-6 (10-8) gaining his first ATP 500 title and ideally picking up form ahead of Wimbledon.
Paul said: “All the American’s are pretty close, we push each other with our results. It’s definitely a healthy competition between us. Frances [Tiafoe] texted me last night before the final saying ‘finish your food’.”
The Florida native certainly left his plate spotless in the final, which in literal terms left Musetti with the second place plate.
On his pride of winning the tournament, joining fellow US greats such as John McEnroe and Pete Sampras, Paul added: “Not only is it my biggest title so far, but it’s also one of the coolest tournaments in the world.
“It has some of the richest history of any tournament, so yeah it’s definitely an amazing one to win. I’m proud of it and I’m very happy about it.”
Despite Americans tending to enjoy playing on grass, they have not produced a Wimbledon winner since Pete Sampras in 2000.
Like many others, the last American finalist Andy Roddick was denied by one of the ‘big four’, Roger Federer, losing all three of his final appearances to the Swiss – most recently in 2009.
But with Federer retired, Rafael Nadal skipping Wimbledon, Andy Murray and Novak Djokovic doubts, now could be the time for an American to challenge the ‘new generation’ for Wimbledon glory.
Paul said: “We saw Frances break into the Top 10 on the grass last year, Fritz making the quarter-finals playing an amazing match with Rafa Nadal at Wimbledon so we’re all turning our sights on Wimbledon and we’re going to try and be as ready as we can.”
Himself, Paul still remains firmly motivated by the goal of reaching Top 10 in the ATP rankings.
Picking up his second title of the year, he will be on the verge of such a goal moving into World No. 11 and can hope to improve on his third round exit at Wimbledon in 2023.
The new American No. 1 cruised to the first set but was denied various match points by Musetti in the second, who seemed to gain momentum, but Paul eventually served it out on his second match point of the tiebreak.
After becoming a crowd favourite during his run at Queen’s, Musetti said: “It was one of the nicest weeks of my career. I want to give credit to Tommy, I struggled to get to his level. At least I saved face a bit at the end.”
