But he is now on the way to doing just that, having cracked the ATP Tour’s top 10 for the first time in his career after the 2025 Australian Open.

Now Paul is in the elite group and his coach Stine thinks he has the motivation and drive to go even higher, and he has helped instill that in him.

Tommy Paul’s coach outlines his improvement and motivations

2025 will mark the sixth season in which Tommy Paul has been coached by Brad Stine.

They have come a long way from Paul failing to qualify for the 2019 US Open to reach the semi-finals of the Australian Open in 2023 and the last eight in 2025.

Plenty of work had to be done, and it started by changing Paul’s approach to what he did off the court to prepare himself for the gruelling ATP Tour.

Furthermore, coach Stine thinks the healthy competition between Paul and his fellow American players is helping him to raise his game.

“I think Tommy’s just become progressively more professional in his approach to things,” the 66-year-old said. “I would say that once he cracked the 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.

“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.

“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.”

Tommy Paul reacts to being a top 10 player for the first time

Following Paul’s run to the 2025 Australian Open quarter-finals, he broke into the top 10 for the first time in his career.

He is currently ranked at number nine, less than 300 points behind Alex de Minaur who is directly above him.

Though it is one of his biggest achievements so far, Paul is not resting on his laurels and he vows to continue working hard off the court to boost his results on it.

“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 said. “I always feel a little awkward when people congratulate me for anything.

“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. I think without the team that I have, I wouldn’t be where I’m at.”

Related Topics