From heartbreak in Melbourne to a dominant display in Dallas! Tommy Paul cruised past Reilly Opelka on Friday, securing his first semifinal spot of the season at the ATP 500 event. Just two weeks after his grueling Australian Open quarterfinal loss to Zverev, this must feel like sweet redemption, right? But the real surprise came after the match, when he found out just how significant this semifinal was. His reaction? Just one word: “Crazy!” Well, what is this semis feat though?

Facing off for the first time in their careers, the two Americans battled for a spot in the Dallas Open SF. With Paul being the defending champion, the stakes were higher. But his towering 6’11” opponent, fresh off a win against Cameron Norrie, was determined to break through to his first semifinal of the tournament and make it within the ATP 100 ranks. However, Tommy, despite enduring two grueling three set matches earlier in the event, rose to the occasion today, sealing a straight-sets victory over Opelka, 7-6 (7-3), 6-2.

He dominated with slice despite Opelka’s 9 aces and wrapped up the match in under 90 minutes, extending his impressive home-soil record to 17-5 since the start of 2024. But the actual surprise? A rare stat about his indoor SF appearances.

Just after the match, Tommy was asked, “A quarter of your tour level semifinals have come indoors. What does that say about your game?”. However, the American came up with a cheeky reply as he added, “that’s crazy. I guess it means I need to get better at playing outside,”. However, why did Paul say he needs to play outdoors more? Hint: it all comes down to his record!

The 2023 AO semifinalist has now played ‌16 tour-level semifinal matches, with four of them coming on indoor hard courts. But here’s a surprising stat as whenever he has reached an indoor semifinal as a Top 10 player in the PIF ATP Rankings, he has gone on to win the title! This rare streak includes triumphs at the Stockholm Open in both 2021 and 2024, as well as his most recent victory at the Dallas Open previous year.

Now, Paul is set for another high-stakes SF showdown against Denis Shapovalov, who has been in red-hot form, defeating top-seeded American on the tour, Taylor Fritz and Tomas Macháč on his way to the final four. But, before stepping onto the court for another indoor SF battle, Paul reflected on his match against Opelka, shedding light on the key moments that brought him one step closer to another shot at a title in back-to-back years.

Paul shared his winning mantra ahead of his SF clash 

Paul put on a masterclass against his fellow countryman, winning an impressive 83 percent of points behind his first serve and never facing a break point throughout the entire match. The third seed in the tournament also made a smart tactical shift, adjusting his game when his usually reliable two-handed backhand wasn’t firing as expected. This adaptation paid off, as he managed to claim 17 of 50 points off Opelka’s powerful first serve. 

Right after the match, the DO semi-finalist said, “Before the matchup, we didn’t talk about it at all. We didn’t really think about slicing or anything. But then I got out there and I was like, ‘wow my slice is kind of feeling better than my backhand right now. So I just started slicing a bunch. It was tough for him on these courts. They’re pretty quick through the court and they don’t bounce very much. It was a good play for me today,” 

Tommy also highlighted the parallel paths that he and Opelka have taken throughout their careers until now. “Super weird. Whenever we tell someone that, they can’t believe it. We’ve played basically the same schedule our whole careers. He came on tour a little bit before me and he was obviously out for a while wth injury. But other than that, we’ve played pretty much the same tournaments our whole career. We were so close to playing each other so many times. It was cool to play each other in a pretty big match here in the states, too,” he added.

The 27-year-old Paul is now on the verge of a career milestone: retaining an “ATP Tour-level” title for the first time. With his sights set on back-to-back triumphs, will Tommy be able to break Canadian Shapovalov’s winning streak and claim another final appearance at the DO?