Playing in his first ATP Tour match since his breakthrough run to the Australian Open semi-finals, Tommy Paul continued his red-hot kind with a victory on the Delray Beach Open on Thursday. The second seed defeated countryman Denis Kudla 6-3, 6-4 to advance to the quarter-finals on the ATP 250.

Both gamers have been a part of the United States Davis Cup crew that defeated Uzbekistan earlier this month, with each incomes street singles victories. With the pair on reverse sides of the online within the U.S., Paul’s pace and athleticism helped him advance at his house match.

“It’s always nice to be home. I live like 15 minutes away from here,” mentioned Paul, who hit seven aces and 14 winners. “It’s nice to play in front of of my friends and some of my family here. It’s easy to have my whole team here so it’s always a good time.”

While it took the American a while to regulate to the windy situations in Delray Beach, he wrestled away management of the match by successful 5 straight video games from 3-3 within the opening set. In holding for a 2-0 lead in set two, Paul saved what proved to be the final break level of the match for both man.

Paul received 12 of 16 factors on the internet in an aggressive show, whereas Kudla ventured ahead simply 3 times, successful a type of factors.

Entering this week at a career-high of No. 18 within the Pepperstone ATP Rankings, Paul should advance to the semi-finals to keep up his place within the Top 20. His subsequent aim is to crack the Top 15.

“We’ve been putting in a lot of work here in Delray and in Boca,” he said. “I’ve been training a tonne, working on and off court. I feel like I’ve made a lot of jumps in my game so hopefully we can keep a good level going here this week and all the way through the rest of the year.”

Paul will meet Radu Albot in Friday’s quarter-finals after the Moldovan’s 6-4, 6-4 win towards Aleksandar Vukic earlier on Thursday. Paul holds a 1-0 lead within the pair’s ATP Head2Head collection, with a straight-sets win in Astana in 2020.