Tommy Paul makes vulnerable admission about hitting "rock bottom," getting alcohol tested and doing community service before turning 21
In 2018, Tommy Paul was not sure if he had a future in tennis. He was facing community service and alcohol testing and just seemed to have lost his edge on the court. But then a moment of realisation helped him turn things around, and the American is now the World No. 9.
Paul, 27, skipped University and turned pro when he was 18 years old. The transition was challenging, and he seemed to lose his path along the way. He partied through his first two years on the pro circuit, and in 2018, he was tasked with community service.
It was around this time that Paul made a conscious effort to change his habits and focus on a long-term career in tennis. Recently speaking on the Nothing Major podcast alongside fellow American tennis stars such as John Isner, Paul recalled those days:
“There was definitely a moment. It was in 2018. But, it came with some consequences. I had to do community service. It was whatever you wanted it to be. You just had to do it, you had to volunteer for something. I didn't really do my hours, but I tried.
"I was getting alcohol tested and then I hired my own team. And like I said earlier, it was just that I didn't want to waste any time on the court. And that was kind of my rock bottom in 2018. I was kind of just putting everything into one basket and going all in.” (31:13 onwards)
Paul continued that he began taking online college classes because he wasn’t sure of a career in tennis. One of his breaking points came when he lost in the first round of a Futures tournament at Winston-Salem, and that’s when Paul thought, “This career might not be for me.”
He didn’t play all of that week and later took his coach’s advice to pull along and turn things around. Tommy Paul went on to break into the top 100 in 2019.
When Tommy Paul “partied too hard” in his early days on the ATP Tour
Tommy Paul did not go to college. He made the switch directly from high school to professional tennis, and that was not an easy transition to make. It came with a set of challenges, and Paul noted that the one aspect that affected him the most was that he extensively partied in his early days.
Speaking on the same podcast, Paul said how it affected his training, and thus, he was stuck with a “lack of structure.”
“I mean, that's part of it. I think I lacked structure in a way. And then also for me, the USTA system was great for me and the juniors, and then when I turned pro, kind of moving out of the USJ and kind of hiring my own coach. Hiring my own team made me not want to waste any practice, made me not want to waste time, and I started training a lot harder.
I started doing the right things a lot more. Probably stopped going out as much, but I mean, I think it was a bunch of things altogether,” he said.
Paul has enjoyed a successful tennis career since and recently achieved a career-high ranking of 9.