California native Brad Stine has been a pillar of American tennis ever since he got his big break in 1990, when he took the reins of a young talent by the name of Jim Courier. The rest, as they say, is history. 

Stine, who has worked with the likes of Pete Sampras, Michael Chang, MaliVai Washington, Todd Martin, Mardy Fish, and Kevin Anderson, has been Tommy Paul’s coach since 2020. We spoke with the legendary San Mateo, California native on Tuesday, catching up with his thoughts on Paul’s rise, American men’s tennis then and now, as well as rising stars Carlos Alcaraz, Jannik Sinner, Alex Michelsen, Joao Fonseca and Learner Tien.

On Tommy Paul avoiding the plateau once inside the Top 10 

“I think for us, if you asked Tommy this question I think he would say the same exact thing: There are still a lot of things within the sport that he hasn’t been able to accomplish yet. He won his first ATP 500 title last year, so check that off the list, but he hasn’t won a Masters 1000 – I think he’s capable of doing that – and he hasn’t won a Slam. We have to see if that’s a possibility or not, but that’s what you are striving for all the time – I think those things keep you pretty motivated.”

On the rise of Carlos Alcaraz and Jannik Sinner

“I don’t think anybody could say that they haven’t been impressed. Anybody that’s been around the game and is a fan of the game in any way."

“Carlos, he’s a little bit of our era’s Roger. It’s funny because when he was first coming on the scene you heard his name mentioned with Rafa, but he didn’t play like Rafa at all. Not even close. He plays a lot more like Roger, he plays with so much flair and so much excitement and you add into that his physicality and his athleticism which are just off the charts."

“Jannik to me he’s kind of a meld of Novak and Rafa, he’s obviously less demonstrative than Rafa but he has that competitive fire that’s in him. He strikes the ball, in a way, like Novak, but way more dangerous – maybe a little less consistent, but way more dangerous. You throw in the combination of those two things, and it’s pretty amazing.”

How would you compare the American men’s tennis climate of 1990 to now? 

“I think there are a lot of similarities. I think it’s interesting that Jim Courier’s generation – Jim, Pete Sampras, Michael Chang, Todd Martin, even Andre Agassi… all of those guys, prior to them making their breakthroughs there was this kind of sentiment in the US of ‘Where’s the next generation?’ We had come out of Connors, McEnroe and those guys dominating Grand Slams and winning Grand Slam titles and being No. 1 in the world, and then there was a little bit of a lull for a period of time and there was a lot of chatter about ‘What has happened to American men’s tennis?’"

“I remember being lucky enough to be involved with Sampras and Courier and Martin and Chang and those guys during their junior days, thinking to myself and saying to people ‘Man there’s nothing wrong with American tennis. We have a great group of guys, just give it a little bit of time.’"

Thoughts on Joao Fonseca, are we getting ahead of ourselves? 

“Yes and no. He’s amazing and I think that within all sports there is this tendency to get ahead of ourselves when we see guys like that."

“Mechanically he’s phenomenal. I commentated the match when he beat Rublev in Australia. The ball speed and the rotation on the ball was so massive and he was hitting the ball four feet inside the lines. So there was this degree of safety combined with how massive he was hitting the ball, it almost made no sense. How can you hit the ball that big and not have it be an inch from the line? He was hitting the ball that big consistently and keeping it well inside the lines. That’s scary, if he is capable of doing that on a day-in, day-out basis with the top guys, he’s going to be rough to play.”

Thoughts on Learner Tien and Nishesh Basavareddy 

“Those guys have been amazing. I love watching it. I think the most impressive thing with both of those guys and how they produce their game is their mental toughness. For them to show the mental toughness that they have at their age. For Learner to beat Medvedev in Australia with what that takes mentally and emotionally to be able to do that, and the level of consistency that it takes is so impressive. And Nishesh is similar." 

Thoughts on rising American Alex Michelsen 

“He’s working with Robby Ginepri now, which I think is a great pairing. He’s trying to really make a push. He’s a really dedicated guy, working hard. You have to have the mentality, and you combine his mentality with his size and I think he’s got more weapons than Basavareddy and Tien, and he’s producing his game in a different way, and maybe that’s why he’s a little further along in the rankings than them.”

On how his partnership with Jim Courier helped his coaching career take off 

“There’s no doubt about it. I had been lucky enough to be involved with some good players up to that point, but Jim was my first full-time gig on the tour. To have it end up being him, and what he was able to accomplish, to be part of that was obviously very instrumental in me getting jobs down the road and being able to work with high level players. It creates a reputation for you, that being said as a coach you have to go into every situation and kind of prove yourself again, but yes, it was definitely a springboard for me to work with the guys that I have gotten to work with over the course of my career.”