Volkswacht Bodensee - 'Sucks always' as error-strewn Paul laments missed Melbourne chances

The American 12th seed held his own against world number two Alexander Zverev in the opening two sets.

But he lost focus when they went to tiebreakers, eventually crashing 7-6 (7/1), 7-6 (7/0), 2-6, 6-1.

"I think losing sucks always, but there's good takeaways," said Paul, who fell short of matching his 2023 exploits when he reached the last four in Melbourne.

"I served for the first two sets and won the third set, not pretty, but I won the third set.

"I just have to close those sets out. That's what the top players do so well.

"When they're front-running, they do a great job in closing big sets or any sets, and that's what I didn't do well today," he added.

"Then when we got to the breakers, he obviously dominated the breakers. I made way too many unforced errors, and he locked it down."

Paul hit far more winners than the German, but totted up 56 unforced errors to Zverev's 36.

"Unfortunately, my unforced error count was just too high today," he said. "You can't have that when you're playing guys who are number two in the world at Slams."

Despite missing out on another semi-final Paul is projected to move into the world's top 10 on the back of his Melbourne run.

H.Kuenzler--VB