Stefanos Tsitsipas was awarded by his colleagues as the most improved player 2018 on the ATP Tour. His mother Julia works in the background.
The new generation of stars on the ATP tour also have some things in common with all the different peculiarities on the court – in the case of Alexander Zverev, Dennis Shapovalov and Stefanos Tsitsipas, for example, the fact that the competent work of the mothers is hidden behind the success of the sons. Irina congratulated Sascha Zverev in London on the greatest success of his career, Tessa accompanied her son Denis Shapovalov throughout the tennis year – and Julia Salnikova also knows what she is talking about when it comes to the development of her son Stefanos.
In an interview with the Italian Gazzetta dello Sport, the former Russian professional player gave some insights into the development of Stefanos Tsitsipas, who recently won the #NextGen-Masters in Milan. The 20-year-old Greek has sensationally finished the year in 15th place in the ATP World Ranking and won his first title on the Tour in Stockholm. And this with a style that also meets the highest aesthetic demands.
“Stefanos has been working on his tennis style for a long time,” Mother Julia said. “From the beginning, he played a one-handed backhand. He watched Roger Federer as a teenager. And he gave everything to play like that. He wanted it so badly, and in the end he made it.”
Stefanos Tsitsipas is coached primarily by Father Apostolos. But he also had to take care of the three siblings Elisavet, Petros and Pavlos, who also try their hand at competition tennis.
“My husband didn’t always coach Stefanos,” Julia Tsitsipas continues. “When we saw he liked to play, we sent him to another coach. But when Stefanos began to travel around the world, Apostolos began to travel and work with him.”
Stefanos Tsitsipas, who was voted the most-improved player of 2018 by his ATP colleagues, set the first exclamation mark at the ATP Tour 500 tournament in Barcelona in 2018. There the Greek defeated Rafael Nadal only in the final, had defeated Dominic Thiem on the way there, after Nadal the probably best clay court player.
A tournament week that also inspired mother Julia. “Things have turned out better than planned. When I saw him play Rafa Nadal in the final in Barcelona, I said: “Now he has really become a tennis player”.