PARIS — Tommy Paul was, of course, happy to be back to win his first round match at the French Open on Sunday, but perhaps not as excited as to discuss retrieving a truck that had returned to his Florida home when he accidentally missed some payments.
Paul, seeded 12th, continued his track-in with clay court results at Roland Garros by eliminating Elmer Mueller, Denmark 6-7 (5), 6-2, 6-3 and 6-1.
The 2023 Australian Open semi-finalists explained that his vehicle adventures that occurred while reaching the semi-finals at the Italian Open earlier this month forgot to properly adjust the banking changes and auto-payments for his Ford F-150.
“I think it was like three payments. They came and took it. I didn’t know that it happened. I didn’t know how quickly they came and grabbed it – like midnight,” Paul said. “Now I’m watching all these ‘repo’ shows. They had the truck in at 1am and it’s definitely an interesting experience.
He discovers that the truck was gone when a trainer returned to Florida asked Paul to check security camera footage and see if it was delivered to his home and needed to pick it up.
To his surprise, he said on Sunday, “There were no packages – there were no trucks either.”
As he scrolled through the video, the 28-year-old American, who grew up in New Jersey, saw what happened.
“I thought it was stolen at first, ‘What the heck is going on? I brought my car and the tow truck is coming!”
When he realized that, Paul took him to social media, pulling black and white footage of his fortune from his driveway, adding the soundtrack for Celine Dion’s “My Heart Follows.”