ATP Australian Open Grand Slam
Tommy Paul arrives in Melbourne fit, focused and launching a new foundation
Tommy Paul returned inside the Top 20 after a long break, rebuilding body and launching a foundation
Tommy Paul returned to the Australian Open ranked inside the Top 20 after taking most of the last six months off. The break followed a taxing 2025 season and a foot injury at Wimbledon that ultimately sidelined him at the end of August.
“I had a lot of opportunities to play points in December coming into the first couple of tournaments of the year,” Paul told me of his extended pre-season after advancing into the second round of the Australian Open. “I knew my level a little bit better.”
Paul shut his season down after the 2025 US Open and said his rest might have begun even earlier. “I really knew around French Open, beginning of French Open I knew at some point in the year I was going to have to be shutting it down,” said Paul, who made the quarterfinals in Paris despite an abdominal injury. “I kind of just extended maybe a little too long. Probably shouldn’t have gone and played Wimbledon. Probably shouldn’t have played US Open.”
The pause cost him a shot at the Nitto ATP Finals, but it also gave him time to repair his body and reset. By December he was competing again at the Garden Cup at Madison Square Garden; a month later he reached his first tour semifinal since May at the Adelaide International.
“I mean, it was a lot of long days,” Paul said of his pre-season. “Spent a lot of time on the body.
“First thing’s first is getting all the mobility back in your joints and your legs, your hips. Then from there, it’s kind of building a bit of cardio, which is hard to do, because, I mean, you don’t want to do impact when you are hurting, so we’re doing no-impact cardio, which means probably you have to do more of it.”
In his opening match he was efficient, serving 20 aces and dropping just four points on his first serve in a victory over fellow American Alexander Kovacevic. “I don’t know if that was temperature or the courts are just faster, but it took a little while to get in the rhythm from the ground,” said Paul, who struck twice as many winners as errors (38 to 16), “but luckily, I came out serving really well today.”
The time off also allowed him to launch the Kids Outdoors Foundation with fiancée Paige Lorenze. “There’s quite a few tournaments in South Florida, like Delray or Miami, and getting a group of kids that have never been to tournaments and just getting kids excited about tennis, getting kids excited about being outside,” Paul previewed.
“Yeah, it’s an exciting thing. It’s something we talked about doing for a while now. I think it’s something that means a lot to both of us. Both of us had so many opportunities given to us through sports growing up, and I think anything that we can do to help, we’re going to try and do it.”
One of 21 Americans in the men’s draw, Paul reflected on experience and calm. I’m getting older…But, I mean, I think for me it helps. Experience, it means a lot in this sport. I feel like you gain a lot from experience coming down here. Playing in the first round when you are in your younger years, you feel so nervous. You don’t know really what you’re getting yourself into. I mean, I know what I’m getting myself into every time I play.
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.
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.
“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%.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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
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.
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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