The biggest buzz of the first week at Roland Garros? A full-blown American invasion. As play kicked off on Saturday, nine Americans (four men and five women) were still standing strong in the third and fourth rounds of the singles draws. That’s a stat we haven’t seen since 1995. Three American men, Frances Tiafoe, Ben Shelton, and Tommy Paul, had a shot at reaching the final eight. And guess who crossed the finish line first? Paul. With that, he’s matched a milestone of one of the legendary American tennis players.

Tommy Paul reached new heights on Sunday at Roland Garros, booking a spot in the quarterfinals of the clay major for the very first time. He did the hard yards earlier in the week, grinding through back-to-back five-set wins against Marton Fucsovics and Karen Khachanov. Meanwhile, his fourth-round opponent, Alexei Popyrin, was cruising; he hadn’t dropped a set coming into the match.

But the American flipped the script. He made quick work of the Aussie, taking him down 6-3, 6-3, 6-3 in just under two hours. The American saved 90% of the break points he faced (9 out of 10), nailed 27 winners compared to Popyrin’s 18, and kept his unforced errors low, just 22 to the Aussie’s 37.

The 28-year-old is the first American man to make the Roland Garros quarterfinals since Andre Agassi in 2003.

 But that’s not the only history Tommy Paul has made. With this win, the 28-year-old has now made the quarterfinals at three of the four majors. He got to the semifinals at the Australian Open in 2023, the quarterfinals at Wimbledon in 2024, and now, Roland Garros. That’s elite territory. He’s the ninth American man in the Open Era to do it across three surfaces. And the only active one. The list includes Andre Agassi, Michael Chang, Jim Courier, Vitas Gerulaitis, Brian Gottfried, John McEnroe, and Pete Sampras. 

Interestingly, Paul was not the biggest fan of the clay courts before. He won the boys’ title at Roland Garros in 2015, sure. But back then, the surface didn’t excite him much. “Coming over to the clay, I used to not be very excited to come out here,” he said. “I mean, three, four years ago, I definitely wasn’t super comfortable on the clay.”

That mindset has recently changed, though. “Honestly, everything kind of changed a little bit,” he said. “Now I come over here and I look at it as an opportunity. I think all the Americans do. I think everyone can play on everything.” And Paul is backing that up with results. He’s now 12-3 on clay this season. Just last month, he reached the semifinals at the ATP Masters 1000 in Rome. He’s not just surviving on the surface; he’s thriving on it.

Next up? A quarterfinal showdown against the winner of Carlos Alcaraz and Ben Shelton. And speaking of Alcaraz, Andre Agassi himself has taken a magnifying glass to the contrast between him and Tommy Paul.

Andre Agassi highlights the difference between Tommy Paul and Carlos Alcaraz

Last year, Carlos Alcaraz pulled off a show-stopping run to the Roland Garros title. He clawed his way back against Jannik Sinner and Alexander Zverev to grab the trophy. This year, despite a few bumps, he’s already in the fourth round and looking sharp.

On TNT Sports, Agassi talked about what makes playing on clay so different and how Alcaraz handles it compared to Tommy Paul. The 8-time Grand Slam champion said, “Alcaraz is crazy fast defensively. This is a guy when you watch him move on a hard court, you put him top three in the world in movement. You put him, Tommy Paul and De Minaur.”

Analyzing their contrast, he said, “Then you watch those same three on clay, a more slippery surface, and you realize that the fastest guys’ movement diminishes about five percent but Alcaraz’s only diminishes one or two percent. Alcaraz trusts his power in his legs so much that from incredibly defensive positions he can still hurt you, which means you have to have your guard up at all times. When you get guys that have great speed, great athleticism and then great skill sets, that is the kind of speed that really hurts.”

It’s no small task for Paul from here on. Agassi was the last American man to win the French Open, back in 1999. He also reached the semifinals that year. Could Tommy Paul be next in line to rewrite history, even if Carlos Alcaraz stands in his way? What do you think?