Tommy Paul’s offer to a young fan was rejected after the child made waves for supporting him at the US Open. The 14th seed found himself two sets down to Roman Safiullin in the second round but, with the kid cheering him on courtside, he managed to come back and win in five sets. Paul then extended an invitation to have the fan join his box but it was rejected when the boy found himself some even better seats.
Paul is enjoying his best run ever at his home Grand Slam tournament. The 26-year-old made it to the second week for the first time, where he now faces an all-American clash against Ben Shelton.
But it was almost a different story as Paul was close to packing his bags in the second round after he trailed Safiullin 3-6 2-6. With the American staring down the barrel of defeat, one young fan named Eddy kept cheering him on until the very end as he completed the comeback.
In return, Paul invited the boy to come and sit in his player box for his next match against 21st seed Alejandro Davidovich Fokina but the world No 14 has since revealed that his offer was turned down. “We got him tickets in my box but he found better tickets and was right there courtside screaming for me,” Paul told Sky Sports.
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“So it was really cool to see him over there. He’s basically part of my team at this point but hopefully he’ll come to the rest of my matches this tournament.” And the third-ranked American got his wish, as the fan also attended his fourth-round match against Shelton.
It’s not the first time Paul claimed the young spectator was acting like a coach, as he gave the fan his t-shirt after defeating Safiullin in five sets on the 2,400-seat Court 17 on Wednesday. After the match, the 26-year-old knew that Eddy sat near his towel box so he could shout words of encouragement.
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“[He] definitely sat down strategically. He wanted to be in my ear the whole match,” Paul laughed. “He was encouraging me – I mean, damn near coaching me. I had to go over there and give him some love.”
When he handed Eddy the gift, Paul said he was already trying to make the arrangements to have his new hype man in his corner for the next round. “I told him, like, ‘Dude, you have to come to the next one. Get in contact with me, message me on Instagram or whatever and we’ll get it hooked up,’” he said. But it seems that Eddy found himself some even better seats, and he’s been supporting Paul ever since.
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