Toby Samuel Secures First Grand Slam Victory at US Open

Toby Samuel walked into his first US Open main draw match with the miles of qualifying still in his legs and the noise of New York in his ears. Ninety-odd minutes later, he walked off Arthur Ashe territory with something far more valuable: his first Grand Slam win, and the sense that his story is only just starting.

The 23-year-old Briton, a qualifier ranked outside the top 250 just a year ago, dismantled former world No 20 Tomas Machac 6-2 6-3 6-2 with a performance that looked nothing like a debut and everything like a statement.

This from a player who, only two years back, had sunk towards 2,000 in the rankings as bone bruising in his right arm ripped a hole through his 2024 season. From rehab and obscurity to the second round in New York. The climb has been steep. The acceleration lately has been startling.

“It means everything to me. It's what I dreamt of as a kid watching these big tournaments,” Samuel told BBC Radio 5 Live, still processing what he had just done. “Being able to win my first Grand Slam match is unbelievable.”

On this evidence, he might need to get used to it.

From the brink to the big time

Samuel has been living on the Challenger circuit, grinding his way back into relevance. He won 36 of 39 matches there last year, a staggering run that dragged him into the top 300 and hinted at a ceiling far above that level.

This season he has ripped straight through it.

He arrived in Paris earlier this year having never played a single ATP Tour match, yet battled through qualifying to make his Grand Slam debut at Roland Garros. The learning curve was brutal. The setting, overwhelming. In the locker room he found himself next to Alexander Zverev and the rest of the sport’s elite, and admitted he felt starstruck.

Now the awe is fading, replaced by something more dangerous for his opponents: belief.

“I'm still a little bit,” he said of that sense of awe, “but I'm definitely more comfortable being around those top guys because I could be playing them the next day. I have to start thinking of them not as stars but people I can play against.”

That mental shift has mirrored his results. After Paris came a run to the semi-finals in Eastbourne, then a Wimbledon wildcard, then a third Challenger title of the year on the hard courts of Winnipeg. Each step nudged him closer to the top 100; this win in New York pushes him inside it in the live rankings and delivers the biggest payday of his career – $140,000, plus the promise of automatic entry into next January’s Australian Open.

A year after only just breaking into the top 250, he is now on the verge of completing the full set of Grand Slam main draws.

A ruthless debut

The remarkable part about this US Open opener? It was easy. Or at least, he made it look that way.

In qualifying, Samuel had to claw back from a set down in all three matches just to earn his place in the main draw. Against Machac, there was no such drama. No nerves. No wobble.

He came out swinging, clinical from the baseline and razor-sharp on serve. Across the opening two sets he dropped just five points in nine service games. At one stage he reeled off seven games in a row, including three consecutive holds to love, suffocating Machac’s resistance and stripping the match of any tension.

The pressure finally told early in the third when Samuel briefly slipped 2-0 behind. It felt like the moment a seasoned campaigner might steady, and a newcomer might panic.

Samuel did neither. He surged.

From 0-2 down he reeled off six straight games, saved two break points along the way, and shut the door on any idea of a comeback. Machac, once a top-20 presence, had no answers to the depth and conviction coming from the other side of the net.

Next up is 18th seed Jiri Lehecka, another Czech and a far sterner test. But Samuel will walk into that match with a clean, straight-sets win behind him, a ranking spike in his pocket, and the sense that he belongs on this stage.

Built in Carolina, born in Winchester

Samuel’s rise carries a distinctly American imprint. Like his friend and 2019 Wimbledon boys’ doubles partner Arthur Fery – who surged up the rankings after a breakout run to the semi-finals at SW19 this year – he has used the US college system as a launchpad rather than a detour.

Encouraged by his parents, the former junior world No 57 headed to the University of South Carolina, where he earned an All American doubles title and toughened his game in front of what he describes as “super lively” crowds. The intensity of those college matches, the constant noise, the pressure of playing for a team – all of it has bled into the way he competes now.

Several of his Carolina team-mates were in the stands for his first-round win in New York. He pointed to their “fighting energy” as a factor in getting “the job done” against Machac. On a court where so many first-timers shrink, Samuel drew strength from familiar faces.

His parents, who had followed his entire qualifying campaign, were not there this time. They were across the country, helping his younger brother settle into his own college tennis journey in the United States.

“My brother's just started university in America so they flew out to help him settle in, and I think my dad will fly back out for the second round,” Samuel said.

It is a snapshot of where his life is right now: family split between campuses and courts, his own career suddenly accelerating into a new orbit.

From Winchester to Columbia to New York, from the edge of the rankings to the edge of the top 100, Toby Samuel has already covered a lot of ground. Now comes Lehecka, a seeded opponent under the lights of a Slam, and the chance to turn a breakthrough win into something bigger.

For a player who used to watch these tournaments and dream, the question now is no longer whether he belongs here. It’s how far this run can really go.