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Tommy Paul returns to the Garden Cup after extended recovery and offseason

Tommy Paul returns to the Garden Cup after a long recovery, eager to resume competing in 2026.

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Tommy Paul closed out his 2025 campaign after a third-round exit at the US Open and took an extended break to heal a foot injury. Three months on, he returns to New York to open his 2026 season early, scheduled to face Nick Kyrgios in the Garden Cup at Madison Square Garden after what he joked was “the longest off-season ever.”

“I’ve been super fired up about it,” Paul told me over the phone, driving back from practice. “I don’t usually start playing practice matches or points until about two weeks before I leave for Australia. This year with Garden Cup, I’ve started playing two weeks ago! So, I’ve been playing points for a while and I’ve been really excited about it, you know?

“I’ll tell you what, I’ve never prepared for an exhibition this much! I’m treating it like it’s two weeks out of Australia right now!”

Paul spent most of his break in South Florida, with a short vacation in the Bahamas, preferring to stay close to home rather than take a long trip. “Hey, my life is a vacation, you know?” Paul said with a laugh. “Between training and fishing, I don’t need too much.”

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The recovery followed a season that had been trending toward a breakthrough. Paul reached back-to-back Grand Slam quarterfinals and recorded a Top 10 debut, but he felt a pop in his foot at Roland Garros. He played through to a career-high No. 8 and competed in four more events before stopping his year in Flushing Meadows.

“You can play matches in practice and say that you’re pushing yourself hard, but there’s nothing that pushes you the way playing a real match does. You push the boundaries that much more, and push yourself that much harder…I’m excited for those things, where you get to a ball in a match you probably wouldn’t get to in practice…In everything I do, I just love competing and it’s the whole reason why I started playing the sport. Tommy Paul”

“Earlier in my career, I felt like I was struggling with injuries a little bit,” he reflected, then added that he treated the shutdown as a chance to rest and prepare for the second half of his career.

Fueled by his favorite CELSIUS energy drink , Paul has been feeling Peach Vibes in more ways than one this fall. He has also pushed up his schedule, entering Brisbane in addition to Adelaide to build toward the Australian Open. “For me, it’s not really the travel out there as much as competing,” Paul explained. “I miss competing. I’m jealous of all the people competing more than anything else.”

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At home he and fiancée Paige Lorenze have put up Christmas trees and kept wedding planning mostly in her hands. “She’s so good at that kind of stuff!” he said. “This is the first wedding that she’s planned, but I trust her with my life. She’s doing most of it, and likes bringing stuff and asking me questions about it. I would totally trust her regardless. She has the best taste for that kind of stuff. I think it’s going to be an absolutely amazing wedding, I’m so excited.”

But first, Paul will head back to New York to celebrate a different union, one that promises to reconnect him with his competitive fire.

ATP

Sinner’s serve numbers reveal a mixed picture despite his dominance

Sinner’s serve stats show elite power, but his first-serve percentage still leaves room for growth.

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Jannik Sinner’s serve has long been viewed as a major part of his rise to the top of the men’s game, yet the numbers from the past year tell a more complicated story.

The world No 1 adjusted his service motion shortly before he began establishing himself as a leading force on the ATP Tour, and that weapon stood out again when he defended his Wimbledon title earlier this month.

After losing the US Open final to Carlos Alcaraz last September, Sinner made it clear that he wanted more variety and consistency on serve. His own words at the time showed how deliberate that change was:

“I can say that I’m gonna become a better tennis player and I’m gonna change a couple of things on the serve, just small things, but, they can make big differences and then we see how it goes,” said Sinner. after that defeat against Alcaraz in New York.

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“I’m looking forward to play these matches again, something new is now that I’m not No 1 anymore. Now you chase, it’s different.

“Maybe I will lose some matches from now on, but I will try to do some changes, trying to be a bit more unpredictable as a player and because I think that’s what I have to do, trying to become a better tennis player.”

Even with his strong recent run, the ATP Tour figures for the last 12 months show that there is still work to be done in one area. Sinner ranks 35th in first serve percentage at 63.8%, well behind Alexander Zverev, who leads the list at 72.5%.

The Italian, however, is far more dominant once the first serve lands. He leads the tour in service points won at 80.9%, just ahead of Reilly Opelka on 80.8% and Taylor Fritz on 79.7%.

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He also tops service games won at 92.9%, underlining how difficult he is to break. Opelka follows on 90.6%, with Ben Shelton third at 90.4% and Alcaraz at 89.9%.

One remaining area is ace production. Sinner is 27th in that category with an average of 8.2 per match, while Opelka leads with 18.5, followed by Giovanni Mpetshi Perricard on 15.1 and Fritz on 14.1.

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ATP

Sinner climbs to No 4 on all-time prize money list after Wimbledon defence

Sinner’s Wimbledon defence lifts him to No 4 on the all-time prize money list in 2026.

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Jannik Sinner’s successful Wimbledon title defence brought more than another major trophy. It also lifted the Italian to No 4 on the all-time career prize money list.

Before Wimbledon 2026, Sinner sat at No 6, with Novak Djokovic, Rafael Nadal and Roger Federer occupying the top three spots and Alexander Zverev and Carlos Alcaraz positioned above him. Zverev had recently passed both Alcaraz and Sinner after his French Open run, but the order shifted again once Sinner collected $4,830,756 (£3,600,000) for his latest Wimbledon triumph.

That result leaves Sinner close to becoming only the fourth player to move beyond $70m in career prize money. He has already earned $11,620,364 in 2026 and is on track to break the $20m barrier for the first time in a season.

His rise has been rapid. Last year, he took in $19,120,641, a total that included a record $5,071,000 for winning the ATP Finals undefeated. He finished second on the 2025 earnings list behind Alcaraz, who made $21,354,778, after leading the way in 2024 with $19,735,703.

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At the end of the 2024 season, Sinner stood on $37,238,688. Since the start of the 2025 campaign, he has added another $32,347,873. From just $36 in prize money in his first professional year, he now sits on $69,586,561.

Zverev is fifth with $68,392,312, while Alcaraz is on $64,997,598 after not adding to his tally since April because of injury. Andy Murray has fallen to No 7 on $64,687,542, with Daniil Medvedev eighth on $52,192,594. Djokovic, Sinner, Zverev, Alcaraz and Medvedev are the only active players to have passed $40m.

Djokovic remains far ahead in first place with $194,656,816, including $3,000,801 earned in 2026. Nadal is second on $134,946,100 and Federer third on $130,594,339.

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ATP French Open Grand Slam

Auger-Aliassime Reaches Career-High No. 4 After Breakthrough at Roland Garros

Auger-Aliassime rises to No. 4 after best Roland Garros run, tying second-highest Canadian rank. Now

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Felix Auger-Aliassime moved to a career-high No. 4 in the ATP rankings following his deepest run at Roland Garros, where the 25-year-old reached the quarterfinals for the first time before losing to eventual finalist Flavio Cobolli. The result completed a personal Grand Slam milestone: having previously reached the quarterfinals or better at the Australian Open, Wimbledon and the US Open, he became the first Canadian man to reach the quarterfinals or better at all four majors in his career.

The rise from No. 6 to No. 4 surpasses his prior best of No. 5 and places him tied for the second-highest-ranked Canadian in ATP or WTA rankings history. The only other Canadians to reach the top four are Milos Raonic and Bianca Andreescu. Raonic went as high as No. 3 in 2016, following his run to the Wimbledon final that year, and Andreescu peaked at No. 4 in 2019 after winning the US Open.

Canadian tennis has seen seven players reach the top 10 in either ATP or WTA history, with official rankings available since 1973 for the ATP and 1975 for the WTA.

Auger-Aliassime still has ground to cover to move higher in the standings. He is 2,865 points behind the current world No. 3, Alexander Zverev, with the rankings showing Zverev at 7,305 points and Auger-Aliassime at 4,440.

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The Canadian will shift his focus to grass. He begins his grass-court season this week at the ATP 250 event in ‘s-Hertogenbosch, entering as the No. 1 seed. After a first-round bye he will open against either Hubert Hurkacz or Marton Fucsovics.

The new ranking reflects a season of important progress for Auger-Aliassime and cements his place among the highest-ranked Canadians in modern tennis history.

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