Tommy Paul has an uncertain future after struggling with injury in recent months.
Paul suffered an abdominal strain at Roland Garros, which prevented him from competing to his full ability against Carlos Alcaraz after reaching the quarterfinals for the first time.
Despite appearing to have dealt with this abdominal issue, Paul left Wimbledon in a cast on his foot after suffering a shock second round exit.
Paul was struggling physically once again at the US Open, and he has not competed since then.
Photo by Al Bello/Getty ImagesBrad Stine reveals the plan Tommy Paul currently has for rest of his tennis career
Brad Stine has been the coach of Paul since the end of 2019, and has helped him win four ATP titles, reach the Australian Open semifinal and break into the top 10 in the world rankings.
Photo by Matthew Stockman/Getty Images
When speaking about his player on the Inside-In podcast, Stine revealed that he has recently changed some of Paul’s training regime.
Stine went on to speak about the future of Paul’s career, revealing that he expects the 28-year-old to play for at least seven more years.
“A big adjustment we made. Was that Tommy and I had a conversation about it initially, just the two of us, at Wimbledon,” began Stine. “I sat down and we had a conversation with Franco [Herrero, fitness coach] and I asked him to stop doing any impact training for Tommy’s cardio.
“Historically in the off season and during training blocks, Tommy would do a fair amount of track work, where he is running anything from 40 metres to 800 metres and anything in between, depending on where they are at in Franco’s programming of what they want to be doing.
“Franco doesn’t necessarily love it, he thinks there is really important aspects to being on the track and I don’t disagree with him entirely. He thinks it also builds a lot of mental toughness. With Tommy getting a little bit older, he’s going to be 28, and I thought it was a smart idea anyway, with the physicality of the game today.
“We were like doesn’t it just make sense given how much impact you are putting on your body on the court, to take that away in training, if we can still create the training environment that we need.
“So that is a big change we have made. I think everybody in their mind on their team thinks of Tommy playing for another seven years. We are talking 35. We think 35 is kind of the number.
“Who knows where we will be when he is 33 or 34 or 35. Maybe then he will be like I want to play for three more years. But I think in everybody’s head right now we want to see Tommy playing and producing his best tennis for another seven years or so.
“Obviously the body is a huge factor in that and trying to reduce that kind of impact on the body I think is really important.”
When will Tommy Paul return to the ATP Tour?
Despite withdrawing from the USA’s Davis Cup tie against Czechia, Paul was still in attendance in Delray Beach and it was revealed by captain Bob Bryan that he had undergone surgery.
That being said, it does not appear to have been a major surgery for Paul, who is entered into two upcoming ATP tournaments.
The first of those is the Shanghai Masters, which begins on October 1, before then heads to Europe.
Paul has also entered the Stockholm Open, the ATP 250 tournament where he is the defending champion.
The American won his second title in the Swedish capital last year, with the Stockholm Open also the event where Paul won his first ever ATP title in 2021.