First Greek in the final of a Grand Slam
With him, the tennis of his country switches to another dimension.
First Greek, finalist in a Grand Slam, he continues his irresistible rise to the top of world tennis.
The first Greek player of the Open era to enter the world top 100, Tsitsipas won his first ATP tournament in Stockholm at the end of 2017. Slender, athletic physique (1.93 m; 85 kg), this enormous puncher forehand and elegant one-handed backhand is focused on the attack: "
Offensive play is the future of tennis
"
,
He confided to Le Figaro in 2019. Elected the best progression of the year 2018 by his peers, the Greek with the angel's mouth and the look of a surfer was offered in the round of 16 of the Australian Open 2019 the scalp of legend Roger Federer and had completed his odyssey against Nadal in the semifinals.
After two defeats in the final in Toronto 2018 (against Nadal) and in Madrid 2019 (against Djokovic), the Greek opened his counter this year in the Masters 1000 in Monte-Carlo, by becoming the world number 1 ... in the Race (since January 1, 2021).
The current 5th in the ATP rankings also came very close to beating Nadal in Barcelona at the end of April and Djokovic in Rome in mid-May on the land tour.
https://twitter.com/GameSetMaths/status/1403391795392925704
Trained at the Mouratoglou academy
In his maturation towards the summits, Tsitsipas owes a lot to the Mouratoglou Academy, which he joined in 2015. The Greek was spotted by Patrick Mouratoglou, the French coach of Serena Williams:
“I discovered him on YouTube. He was 16 years old. I loved what I saw. I liked his style,
explained Patrick Mouratoglou to
Le Figaro in 2019
.
I immediately understood that he had fantastic potential. He also happens to be Greek, and I have Greek origins. So, I contacted his father, who was also his trainer, and I offered to come to my academy for a week. They came and never left
.
"
Kerei Abacar, coach of the Mouratoglou academy, now oversees the nugget on the circuit.
Child of the little yellow ball
and parents very present
Before opting for the little yellow ball, Stefanos, the first of four siblings, had also tried football, he, grandson of Sergei Salnikov, USSR striker and Olympic champion in 1956. But the tennis sounded like a no-brainer. Her mother, Russian Julia Apostoli-Salnikova, was a former Fed Cup player for the USSR and ranked 194th in the world and her father, Apostolos, a long-time tennis teacher at a club in the suburbs of Athens, has always trained him. Stefanos also travels all year round with his mom. Which can create some tension. During the Dubai tournament in 2020, the Greek had the (bad) surprise to see his mother, attend her press conference among journalists and even ask her a question! It must be said that she doeshad hardly appreciated his son's statements about his parents being too involved in his life. And she made it known publicly ...
READ ALSO - Roland-Garros: The Bleuets are full of cardboard among the men
He almost lived a tragedy six years ago…
During a Futures tournament (3rd division) in Heraklion, Crete, in 2015, Stefanos had almost drowned at sea with a friend.
An episode that would have forged his character.
“My father saw us in the distance, he jumped into the water and brought us back to the shore.
It came close to getting there
, he revealed to The
Times in 2018
.
I realized how lucky I was to have my life saved.
[...] Since that day, I am no longer afraid of anything.
This experience helped me to become wiser and stronger physically and mentally
.
"
The results speak for him.
READ ALSO - "Elite clientelism", "unbearable": controversy after the exemption granted to the public at Roland-Garros on Friday evening
Photos, journalism, vlogs ...
Stefanos' life isn't all about the little yellow ball.
He describes himself as
"shy, humble and creative, easy going"
.
Curious, he had chosen to study online journalism at the University of Havard.
While tennis players often remain in their bubble during a tournament, Tsitsipas does not hesitate to visit cities when he is in competition (before the covid era).
On his YouTube account, this young man of his time regularly publishes videos of his travels and narrates his wanderings in a digital logbook to illustrate his "
vlogs
”(Blog mainly using video). He often travels with a drone and regularly posts videos of his trips in a digital logbook on his YouTube account. On his Instagram account, he also reveals his talents as a photographer.
“If I hadn't been a tennis player, I would have liked to be a photographer. ", He
confided to us in February 2020., Less active on twitter in recent months, he"
refocused on his game
". With success.
