
Tommy Paul is one of the men of the moment following his breakthrough into the Top 10 of the PIF ATP Rankings. The American has fielded questions about the feat in every interview he has conducted at the Dallas Open. The 27-year-old is not a person who seeks the spotlight, though.
Paul is one of the most laid-back players on the ATP Tour, who has seemingly been more excited about his favourite NFL team, the Philadelphia Eagles, reaching the Super Bowl than he has been for his own achievements. When asked how he feels about all the attention, the World No. 9 shrugged.
“It's not my end-game goal. So obviously, you reset goals after you achieve one, and now I'm just focused on that,” Paul told ATPTour.com. “I always feel a little awkward when people congratulate me for anything.”
The four-time ATP Tour titlist is more proud of the process he has followed to reach this point than the accomplishment of making the Top 10 itself. In September 2019 he cracked the Top 100 and since then he has methodically improved his game and ascended the men’s tennis ladder.
“I'm proud of the work I put in. I'm more proud of the stuff that I do away from tournaments than at tournaments, to be honest. And I'm proud of my team,” Paul said. “I think without the team that I have, I wouldn't be where I'm at.”
Paul’s longtime coach is Brad Stine, the former coach of Jim Courier and Kevin Anderson among others. This is the beginning of the pair’s sixth season together.
“I think Tommy's just become progressively more professional in his approach to things,” Stine said. “I would say that once he cracked Top 100 and started to see the progress of moving up a little bit, it became a natural process for him to want to continue to improve, continue to climb the ladder, especially when there's a lot of motivation there with the other American guys.”
Paul is especially close with Taylor Fritz, Reilly Opelka and Frances Tiafoe. Fritz is the current World No. 4 and Tiafoe made the Top 10 in 2023.
“His best friends were in a position where he felt like he should be closer to those guys, competing with those guys at the levels they were at,” Stine said. “So that's been a little bit of something for him, chasing the other guys that were ahead of him. But I would say the biggest thing is just discipline, the discipline to do the right thing on and off the court.”
According to Paul, the off-court work has been especially important. He is quick and fit, and the physical side of the game rarely lets him down. That has come from hard work off court.
“Just the annoying, repetitive stuff. A lot of times I'm excited to go practise and work on things, but sometimes it feels repetitive. A lot of times I don't want to do track on Saturdays, but I'm out there doing it every Saturday,” Paul said.
“It depends how far out from a tournament we are, but if we're a little ways out, then we'll do 400s and we'll do, I don't know, 10 or 12 of them. And then if we're close to a tournament, we'll do 200s, and we'll do like 16 of them.”
When Paul and Stine began working together, Tommy had not yet reached the Top 100. Shortly before, at the 2019 US Open, Paul lost in straight sets in the second round of qualifying to Pedro Martinez. That defeat stung.
“[He] can play great tennis, but that was a tough loss mentally for me,” Paul said. “I really got to work after that.”
Stine believes that their partnership remains “really fresh” and that they have continued finding new ways to develop the American’s game.
“Tommy's a really easy guy to be with. He's been extremely coachable from a professional standpoint. He's been willing to do the work and put the time in. But off the court, he's also a very easy person to spend time with and fun to be around. And that makes it nice,” Stine said. “The job doesn't feel like a job most of the time."
Paul’s biggest goal is to chase Grand Slam glory. He asked: “I think we all are, right?”
As has been the case for years, Paul will continue chipping away. Above all, he is enjoying the journey.
“It's awesome. It's nice not sitting behind a desk for a living. I enjoy doing what I love and making money doing it,” Paul said. “It's kind of a dream.”