“I really enjoy the fight. The best way to look at tennis is as having fun, having fun battling someone.”
“It’s kind of like being at war with someone.”
Paul Inchauspe, a sophomore on the Princeton men’s tennis team, has quickly become one of the team’s most valuable assets in just his first two years repping the Orange and Black. A native to France, Inchauspe has adjusted to college life in America while developing his athletic identity as part of a team in a traditionally individual sport.
“I think I was like, probably around five or six when I started playing tennis, and I played golf and rugby as well,” Inchauspe told The Daily Princetonian. “I started very, very slowly and was not taking anything too seriously. I was just playing like once a week for fun, like when you meet friends.”
“I think maybe around 10, 11, 12 is when I started playing a few more times a week … since the beginning I enjoyed tennis a lot,” Inchauspe continued. “It’s a fun time to have. And I think that’s the reason I still enjoy it, because I still like to see it as a game, instead of something that I have to go play.”
Despite playing tennis for fun, Inchauspe’s skill drew attention. As he began to consider tennis a larger part of his future, he changed his educational path.
“I was lucky to have an opportunity to go to England and attend a boarding school over there for high school,” Inchauspe said. “It was a great, great experience at that tennis academy, and in some ways [it] is quite similar to how the tennis team works here.”
Though for Inchauspe, there was one problem.
“I didn’t speak any English,” he recounted. “I feel like if I had stayed in France for my whole education, it would have been difficult to get into or even consider a school like Princeton. Going to England and learning to speak English opened a few more doors.”
And open more doors it did.
Even after attending boarding school in England, Inchauspe was still unsure of where his tennis career was going to take him.
“I grew up in France, and unlike in America, college was never a thing,” Inchauspe told the ‘Prince.’ “It was completely out of the picture, I had never heard about it.”
College tennis was even further from his picture of his future. It was not until late in his youth that, with guidance from his family, he began to view tennis and college as real parts of his future.
“You know, the option to just go pro was in the talks,” Inchauspe explained. “I’m glad my parents never really wanted me to, and … they pushed me to go to college.”
But for someone who had limited experience with the American college system and had just learned to speak English, Inchauspe needed some guidance.
“I had an agent, which facilitated getting in touch with the coaches because I didn’t know much,” Inchauspe told the ‘Prince.’ “She gave me a list of all these great schools for tennis, all these huge athletic schools which have insane tennis programs.”
Princeton, though, was not on this list. Although the Tigers boast an impressive winning program, the schools that Inchauspe was shown — like Texas Christian University, the University of Virginia, and the University of Texas at Austin — have all been consistent national championship winners or contenders over the last 10 years.
So, with such accomplished tennis programs to consider, why Princeton?
Beyond its academic prestige and reputation alone, Inchasupe had a tie to Ole Nassau.
“My oldest sister came here; she graduated in 2016. So because of her, I had heard of Princeton,” Inchauspe explained.
“My agent eventually gave me a list of all of the Ivies, and I was like, ‘Well, you know, my sister went here,’” Inchauspe continued. “I knew my parents would really have loved me to come here too, so I told her I was interested, and I thought it to be my first choice.”
From there, the process was fluid.
“By I think, the next day, I had both coaches reach out,” he told the ‘Prince.’ “I got in touch with the coaches, had a few calls, and it took about two or three months, then I got a spot.”
Inchasupe continued his high school career in England, preparing for his journey to the United States for college. But after months of rigorous training and intense dedication, Inchauspe began to feel a change.
Whether it was athletic burnout or the burden of change of moving to America, Inchauspe decided to take a gap year before beginning his first year at Princeton.
“My gap year was a little bit of an unexpected one,” Inchauspe told the ‘Prince.’ “I decided very late, just a few weeks before I started here.”
“The end of 2021 and the beginning of 2022 was very intense with school, exams, and tennis. I was traveling a lot and playing some big tournaments, so it was really intense,” he explained. “I felt like I just needed a year to recompose and to realize in some way how lucky I was to have the chance to go here.”
During his gap year, Inchauspe took a few months off from tennis, followed by conditioning and training to prepare him for Princeton.
“Towards the middle of that gap year, I started to get really excited, and I really wanted to start [college],” Inchauspe reflected. “Other than that, all I did was travel for tennis, play a few pro tournaments, and know that in a few months I was going to come to Princeton.”
The junior pro tournaments he competed in included the junior Wimbledon, and both the French and the U.S. Opens. Inchauspe was a finalist in the juniors doubles of Wimbledon.
Inchauspe arrived at Princeton in Fall 2023 as a member of the Class of 2027. Nearly immediately, he cemented himself as a crucial spoke in the wheel of the men’s tennis team.
In his first season alone, Inchauspe was named the Intercollegiate Tennis Association (ITA) Northeast Region Rookie of the Year, Ivy League Rookie of the Year, and qualified for the NCAA Tournament for both singles and doubles, earning All-American status. During his first-year, he ranked as high as 27th in the nation for singles and 16th in the nation in doubles with his partner, senior Filippos Astreindis.
Despite these accomplishments, he says his job was far from finished. After suffering an injury right before nationals that forced him to forgo his eligibility, Inchauspe was determined to come back his sophomore year and continue proving himself.
And prove himself he has. Inchauspe advanced to the Sweet 16 in both the NCAA Singles and Doubles Championships in Fall 2024, earning All-American status for the second time. In advancing for singles, Inchauspe defeated No. 1 seeded Sebatian Gorzny, who had taken him down two years prior in the Wimbledon Boys Doubles Final.
“When I played this year, it was like double the pleasure because I hadn’t been able to do anything a few months prior,” Inchauspe explained. “When I reached the Round of 16, it was sick, and it’s something I’m quite proud of.”
In the spring, Inchauspe and the men’s tennis team had similar success, earning impressive wins against opponents like Harvard, whom the Tigers had not defeated for 10 years. The Tigers currently sit at one of their highest ITA rankings in the past 10 years, 35th. And although Inchauspe himself is ranked No. 11 in the nation for singles, he credits much of his success to his team.
“I feel like I’m so lucky to join such a team — they’re a little bit like my family in some way,” Inchauspe told the ‘Prince.’ “They’re all like my brothers. We’re extremely close.”
“We are all extremely dedicated, and we are all on the same page with a lot of things, which doesn’t happen at all schools,” Inchauspe continued. “I think because the culture is so good and because we all want to do well for each other, it just brings the best out of you.”
Inchauspe and the men’s tennis team will finish their regular season against two in-conference opponents in Yale and Brown this weekend. From there, the NCAA Regional Tournament will be played in early May.
When asked about how he and the team will work toward success throughout the end of their regular season and into the postseason, Inchasupe once again praised the dedication of the squad.
“Here, we have a team that’s very tough and everybody really wants to win very bad,” Inchauspe concluded. “That mindset is extremely helpful. Like, you play not only for yourself, but you play for the team. So there’s extra motivation, extra dedication, and fight.”
Lily Pampolina is an associate Sports editor and a staff Audience creator for the ‘Prince.’
Please send any corrections to corrections[at]dailyprincetonian.com.
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