Behind The Camo: Tommy Paul talks style, sailing, and the search for the Third Man

In a sport where there’s nowhere to hide, Tommy Paul hopes you won’t see him coming.

“Being an outdoor kind of guy, I wear camo every single week if not every day,” Paul told me on a drive back from the Hard Rock Stadium.

In between practice for the then-upcoming Miami Open, the world No. 23 was celebrating the launch of the CT-Rally v2 "Outdoor Court" edition. The “Outdoor Court” is Paul’s first colorway collab with New Balance, his longtime apparel and shoe sponsor, and serves somewhat as a status symbol for where he fits within an increasingly open tennis landscape.

“I think it’s the best-looking shoe on the market in tennis,” he said. “Obviously, I’m going to be a little bit biased but I don’t think that’s a biased take. It’s a very, very attractive shoe.”

New Balance boasts a small but mighty stable of players that most famously includes two-time Grand Slam champion Coco Gauff, and the brand has often deviated from the more traditional silhouettes typically seen on court—something Paul sees as right in line with his athletic persona.

“They do what they want, and they do it well,” he told me. “They want to give me a platform to express myself and what I’m about.”

With this sartorial nod to off-court hobbies like fishing and hunting, Paul has finally found a way to combine his very public day job with a lifelong love affair with the great outdoors.

“It’s freedom, it’s meditation, but it’s also an escape,” Paul said of his open-air pursuits. “As tennis players, we’re non-stop on the road. Our schedules are insane. Being outdoors represents a chance to do something else, to get out there and not hear the noise of people, and not feel the same grind.

“Growing up in North Carolina, we’d be fishing every weekend I wasn’t playing in the summer. It was something I absolutely loved doing. I knew that, when I got older, I’d have that kind living where you go out there fishing, harvesting, and eating. It’s even cooler now because I’m in Florida and I can do it all year round.”

As tennis players, we’re non-stop on the road. Our schedules are insane. Being outdoors represents a chance to do something else, to get out there and not hear the noise of people, and not feel the same grind. Tommy Paul

As a brand, Paul’s ship has come in literally in addition to figuratively: his Miami prep also included the unveiling of a partnership with Yellowfin Yachts—though Paul laughingly took issue with so lofty a title for his new boat.

“That is so funny,” he said when I called it a “yacht.” “Reilly [Opelka]’s been calling it my yacht the whole time. I had a boat before and he would always call that a yacht and that was far from a yacht.

“But this boat is serious. We went out on the water in it for the first time and it was so cool. I had the absolute best time. I was grinning ear to ear. I already told everyone the first place I’m going in it is the Bahamas, for sure.”

But Paul isn’t looking towards a vacation anytime soon. The 28-year-old shut down his 2025 season after the US Open thanks to a foot injury that popped up at Wimbledon. Though his ranking dipped from a career-high of No. 8, Paul quickly re-entered the ATP conversation, one that has evolved past a question of who would lead a group of talented Americans.

“It does kind of seem like everyone’s kind of locked in on that third spot, huh?” Paul mused.

The search for a Third Man in men’s tennis is unlikely to end until someone interrupts the nine-Slam stranglehold Carlos Alcaraz and Jannik Sinner currently share on the major tournaments, but while Paul has never won a Masters 1000 title or made a Grand Slam final, the way he competes with Alcaraz and Sinner is enough to make many believe that someone could be him.

That, and his no-nonsense, all-court game—combined with a quiet charisma—gives him crossover appeal for the many international eyes on the sport.

But this is a conversation where Paul would prefer to stay camouflaged.

“I’m really just focused on right now, getting everything sorted and everything locked in to play my best tennis. If I’m playing my best tennis, everything will work itself out. I’m not really too focused on a No. 3 spot, Top 5 or Top 10 spot. I’m more focused getting to a point where I can play my brand of tennis consistently, without too much lapse. That’s what separates the top guys from the rest: even on their worst days, they figure out how to win a match. I think that’s something I’m really focused on.”

I’m more focused getting to a point where I can play my brand of tennis consistently, without too much lapse. That’s what separates the top guys from the rest: even on their worst days, they figure out how to win a match. Tommy Paul

He played Alcaraz tough over three sets at the Australian Open and reached a final in Delray Beach, but his favorite moment of the season thus far was playing Davis Cup qualifying alongside Ethan Quinn and Emilio Nava.

“There’s been a lot of motivational moments,” said Paul.

And even as he looks in front of him, he has to be wary of those coming up from behind: he joked mixed doubles partner Jessica Pegula may dump him for 20-year-old Learner Tien.

“I’d told Jess before our doubles match, ‘Hey, I’m just letting you know, I’ve been volleying terribly, so be ready for that!’” he told me of an Eisenhower Cup moment that blew up into some light-hearted beef for Pegula’s Players Box podcast. “I’d played a couple matches where I missed some volleys that were kind of uncharacteristic for myself, and I took them kind of personally.”

Paul and Pegula are fine, and Miami’s No. 22 seed would prefer to focus farther out when it comes to the next generation, officially launching his Kids Outdoors Foundation in nearby Hobe Sound.

“We went to a school where they have a program already set up for us, so we were able to go in there and talk to the kids,” Paul said of his philanthropic project with fiancée Paige Lorenze. "They had a little basketball court, so we set up some tennis nets and spent some time with the kids, taught them a little tennis.

“We want to explore options with this place, both there and in North Carolina. Coming from North Carolina, that’s obviously a special place for me. As a tennis player, there’s not a whole lot of us. I know Isner’s there and Patrick Kypson. But where I’m from, eastern North Carolina, it’s kind of dying and there’s where I really want to tap into and lend support out there.”

For as lowkey a character as Paul presents off the court, the increased attention hasn’t overwhelmed him—“I look at it more as an honor”—nor has it changed him. At a time when Alcaraz and Sinner are commanding most of the attention, it would be easy for the other men to blend into the background. But for Tommy Paul, camo is an offensive choice, one that pairs comfort with unique self-expression as he makes his most serious push yet towards the top of the game.