American steadies to stifle Danish lucky loser at first hurdle
©Clément Mahoudeau / FFTA decade after departing Paris with the silver salver in hand as junior champion, Tommy Paul has weathered a stern early challenge from Danish lucky loser Elmer Moller to open his 2025 Roland-Garros account.
In damp and windy conditions, the 12th seed proved sturdier over time as he pulled clear of the debutant 6-7(5), 6-2, 6-3, 6-1 on Court Simonne-Mathieu.
While he briefly cracked the top 10 in January, Paul had endured a modest start to the season by his usual standards, but the 28-year-old found his footing just in time for Paris when he reached a second successive Rome semi-final – the first American to do so since Pete Sampras in 1993-94.
It augured well for his seventh Paris campaign where he only improved as his opening clash wore on.
The 28-year-old hit just seven winners and made 20 unforced errors in a searching first set but soon after locked down and had his unheralded foe figured out. In the final three sets he tidied up his winner-to-unforced-error ratio considerably to 5-10, 5-9 and 11-5.
Ten years after he denied Taylor Fritz for the boys’ singles title, Roland-Garros remained the only major Paul had not reached the second week but after improving to 9-3 on clay for the season on Sunday, the first step towards a maiden round of 16 appearance was complete.
©Clément Mahoudeau / FFTPaul’s venture to the Rome semi-finals leading in capped a welcome return to form on the eve of Roland-Garros.
It came amid a stressful week off court when he revealed his beloved Ford F-150 had been repossessed back in Boca Raton, Florida.
“I just changed banking and forgot to set up auto pay on my truck. I missed I think it was like three payments,” Paul said. “They came and took it. I didn't know it happened like that. I didn't know how quick they would come and grab it, like in the middle of the night.
“Now I'm watching all these repo shows where they come in and swoop trucks at 1 in the morning. It's definitely a funny experience. To be in Europe while it happened is even crazier. But we did get it back.”
Few ATP players so heavily favoured their two-handed backhand as Moller and his potent, yet consistent flat blow kept the American out of kilter through the opening set.
He finished with 13 winners off that wing to Paul’s two despite only winning six games in the final three sets.
“He came out playing pretty well. Obviously very different kind of player,” Paul said. “I mean, he's running around to hit backhands, which you don't see very often. Especially running around to hit them inside-out, which was kind of strange, but he did it very well.
“From the ground, he stuck with me pretty well. I thought it was an interesting match, for sure.”
The Scandinavian earned a second shot at a Grand Slam main draw after he fell to Italian Matteo Gigante in the final round of qualifying when he received a lucky loser call-up.
It was a chance he was not about to waste and there were no signs of nerves from the off as he gunned for his first top 20 victory before Paul pulled clear.
Moller’s biggest career moment came in February when he completed Denmark’s Davis Cup Qualifier comeback from 0-2 down in a fifth rubber against Serbian Hamad Medjedovic before 11,000 fans on home soil.
Provisionally up to world No.109 in the live rankings and having shown early promise against the world No.12 there was cause to believe he was well within reach of joining compatriot Holger Rune in the top 100.
ROLAND-GARROS
19 May - 8 June 2025
©Jean-Charles Caslot / FFT