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Paul, a 25-year-old North Carolina native, is ranked 31st in the
world and has one career ATP Tour championship.
Nadal, a 36-year-old Spaniard, was denied the possibility of
moving back to No. 1 in the world had he won the Paris
championship and current No. 1 Carlos Alcaraz of Spain lost
before the quarterfinals. Nadal has 92 career ATP Tour titles,
including a record 22 major championships.
"It's probably my best win," Paul said. "I was obviously pumped
for the matchup because it's always interesting when you play
one of the Big Three (Nadal, Novak Djokovic and Roger Federer).
I've only played him the second time, but the first time I was
so nervous.
"It was weird, this time I wasn't really nervous. I was pretty
relaxed going onto the court and the day before. I think that
played a role. I came out playing pretty well. He got the first
set, but I feel like I played pretty well from the jump."
Nadal took the first set, then broke serve for a 2-1 lead in the
second set, but Paul immediately broke back. Nadal saved a set
point on his serve to pull level at 5-5 before Paul eventually
claimed the tiebreaker.
Paul cruised through the third set to wrap up the match.
"I had a lot of fun out there," Paul said. "It was probably the
best I've played in the past three months. I know it's been a
slow Europe swing for me, so I'm pumped to get that W."
The victory gives Paul a 4-4 all-time mark vs. players ranked
among the top five in the world. His third-round opponent will
be 14th-seeded Pablo Carreno Busta of Spain, who edged Canada's
Denis Shapovalov 7-6 (2), 2-6, 6-4.
In other Wednesday action, Alcaraz advanced to the third round
with a 6-4, 6-4 win over Japan's Yoshihito Nishioka, but
fourth-seeded Daniil Medvedev of Russia fell 6-4, 2-6, 7-5 to
Australia's Alex de Minaur.
Fifth-seeded Stefanos Tsitsipas of Greece dumped Great Britain's
Daniel Evans 6-3, 6-4, and eighth-seeded Felix Auger-Aliassime
of Canada nipped Swedish qualifier Mikael Ymer 6-7 (6), 6-4, 7-6
(6).
French wild-card entrant Gilles Simon defeated ninth-seeded
Taylor Fritz of the United States 7-5, 5-7, 6-4, and Denmark's
Holger Rune got past 10th-seeded Hubert Hurkacz of Poland 7-5,
6-1.
France's Corentin Moutet knocked out 12th-seeded Cameron Norrie
of Great Britain 6-3, 5-7, 7-6 (3), and 16th-seeded Frances
Tiafoe of the United States beat Great Britain's Jack Draper
6-3, 7-5.
Bulgaria's Grigor Dimitrov and Italy's Lorenzo Musetti also
moved on with straight-set wins.
--Field Level Media
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