Coco Gauff and Tommy Paul help break 40-year American record at the French Open

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Coco Gauff and Tommy Paul are among the American players impressing at the French Open, which is now heading into week two.

Paul has been named a French Open dark horse at this year’s event, with the 28-year-old the 12th seed in Paris.

He entered the Grand Slam on the back of a semi-final run at the Italian Open, where he lost to world number one Jannik Sinner.

Gauff meanwhile is the second seed in the WTA Tour competition, and next meets Ekaterina Alexandrova in round four.

And ATP number 12 Paul is already into the quarter-finals of the French Open, having just knocked out Alexei Popyrin.

Coco Gauff and Tommy Paul help break 40-year American record at French Open

But he was joined at the previous stage by many of his compatriots, including fellow American ATP players Ben Shelton and Frances Tiafoe.

In fact, a total of eight Americans made it into the second week of the French Open for the first time in 40 years.

READ MORE: Coco Gauff picks the top three victories which she has achieved over her tennis career so far

That list comprises the male trio and female players Gauff, Jessica Pegula, Madison Keys, Amanda Anisimova and Hailey Baptiste.

Moreover, on the ATP Tour, the trio represent the first three American men to reach the fourth round at Roland Garros since Andre Agassi, Jim Courier and Michael Chang in 1995, as per Tennis Channel.

American ATP and WTA top 10 amid strong French Open runs

American players have been needing to step up their games in recent times, which they may be willing to admit themselves.

But that is more true of the ATP players than the WTA players, with Keys having triumphed at the Australian Open this year.

READ MORE: Coco Gauff names the four American women she would put on her Mount Rushmore for tennis

That came after two Grand Slam titles for Belarusian Aryna Sabalenka in 2024, with Pole Iga Swiatek and Czech Barbora Krejcikova also emerging victorious.

Meanwhile on the men’s side in 2024, Italian Jannik Sinner and Spaniard Carlos Alcaraz each won two Grand Slams.

Sinner continued that trend by winning the 2025 Australian Open, with another European Grand Slam success on the cards this week.

But American hopes will be high amid their adventures at the French Open, with Andy Roddick the last American man to win a Grand Slam.

The former world number one clinched his one and only title at the 2003 US Open, and his heroics have not been repeated since then.