'All of his stuff was gone from his locker': Tommy Paul's coach shares incident in Madrid which impacted player's health

Brad Stine, the coach of America’s tennis star Tommy Paul, has made an interesting revelation about how an incident impacted the player’s fitness. The 28-year-old is currently placed in 15th position on the ATP rankings and is regarded as one of the best American players on the men’s tour.

Paul’s coach, Stine, recently appeared on the Inside-In Podcast with Mitch Michals, where he explained how one incident impacted the player’s fitness. Stine shared that during the Madrid Open, Paul and his coaching staff faced a peculiar situation in which all his belongings in the locker room went missing, including his shoes, inner shoes, and orthotics.

"We took a day off, where we didn't go to the courts at all, and then we went out the next day, and we were gonna practice, and then leave the following day to go to Rome," said Stine. "We get to the courts, and I don't think anybody did anything underhanded or anything like that, but all of his stuff was gone from his locker, which included his shoes, and inside of his shoes, his orthotics.”

Paul used orthotics to alleviate fitness concerns, but they went missing; the player had to start breaking in new orthotics. Paul also had to deal with foot discomfort. Paul’s Journey in the competition ended in the third round as he lost to Britain’s Jack Draper in straight sets with a score of 6-2, 6-2.

Despite losing early in Madrid, Paul managed to bounce back in the Rome Masters, where he eventually lost to then world number one Italy’s Jannik Sinner. In that contest, he won the first set with a score of 6-1 but then lost the other two sets with scores of 6-0 and 6-3. Stine revealed that Paul continued to play through pain and had to undergo an MRI scan as soon as he landed in Paris to participate in the French Open.

Difficult season

Stine specifically mentioned the third-round win over Karen Khachanov, where, according to him, he thought that the American tennis star would not be able to play another match in the competition after winning that contest in five sets with a score of 6-3, 3-6, 7-6, 3-6, 6-3. "If you go back and watch the highlights of the match against Khachanov, I certainly didn't think that he was gonna necessarily be able to get through another match,” said Paul.

Stine shared another story where he thought Paul’s fitness was tested to the maximum, which occurred at Wimbledon in the second-round match against Sebastian Ofner. "Again, we thought he was going to be done," said Stine. "By the time the trainer came out to the court, he was leaning over and giving us thumbs up and going, like, 'I don't know what's going on, but it feels okay.'"

Paul is currently going through a lengthy break to recover from a fitness concern. His last appearance was at the US Open, where he was knocked out after losing in the third round to Kazakhstan’s Alexander Bublik in a five-set thriller with a score of 7-6, 6-7, 6-3, 6-7, 6-1. Overall, Paul has played 42 matches in 2025, winning 29 of them and suffering just 13 defeats. His best performances this year came on three occasions where he was eventually knocked out after losing in the semifinal.

In January, Paul was knocked out of the Adelaide International after losing to Canada’s Felix Auger-Aliassime with a score of 7-6, 3-6, 6-4. Later in the Dallas Open, Paul lost in the semifinal to Canada’s Denis Shapovalov in straight sets with a score of 7-5, 6-3. His third semifinal defeat came in Rome against Sinner.