STEFANOS TSITSIPAS’ ODYSSEAN JOURNEY

WITH FATHER OUT AS COACH, GREEK STAR PENNING NEW CHAPTER

By Richard Osborn

Stefanos Tsitsipas’ on-again/off-again relationship with his father-coach, Apostolos, has never been an easy one. Especially this time of year.

Just days before the 2024 Cincinnati Open, the former world No. 3 relieved his dad of his coaching duties, insisting he was at a career crossroads. Then, last summer, after stints with former Wimbledon champ Goran Ivanisevic and Davis Cup captain Dimitris Hadjinikolaou, they were suddenly back together. Now it appears they have gone their separate ways, at least professionally, once again.

It’s downright Odyssean.

“I’ve been repeating a certain pattern for far too long, and I’ve made a clear decision with myself that I’ve had enough of it. I’m looking for something different in my life. I’m 28 years old. I’m not 21 anymore,” said the 49th-ranked Tsitsipas, who was supposed to play qualifying rounds at the 2026 Cincinnati Open, but moved into the main draw when top-ranked Jannik Sinner withdrew due to injury.

“I think now is the best time to do it. I’ve got to move on with it and live on good terms with it. I have a good relationship with my father. Unfortunately, I can’t have him as my coach. I have a good team of people that have been there, and I would like him to stay as my father, which I hope he respects. I think he will. He will come to terms with it, and he will be there whenever I need him. But it’s a complicated relationship.”

The top-ranked Greek of all time, Tsitsipas finished inside the Top 10 in the PIF ATP Rankings five years running between 2019 and 2023, with three ATP Masters 1000 Monte-Carlo titles and a Nitto ATP Finals trophy to his credit. But the Athenian has been searching for his form of late.

“Right now, it’s important to take big steps in terms of improvement and doing some things that were a bit stagnant over the last couple of years,” he said. “I’ve been focusing a lot on transitioning quicker to the net, being just a little bit more dangerous. This is the type of thing that actually makes me really feel alive when I play, so I’ll keep working on it. It’s important to stay consistent with the work and to show up every single day on court and strive for small improvements, fractions of improvements, and even allow myself to sometimes make mistakes, because it’s important, it’s part of the process.”

“I need to keep reminding myself,” he added. “Like any person who’s looking for something new, you have a tendency to go back to your old habits, back to your old patterns, because that’s what feels more safe.”

Tsitsipas, sounding a whole lot like a man ready to channel his countryman, the revered poet Homer, is busy penning an epic of his own.

“It’s probably a chapter of me making calls and making decisions. It’s a chapter of me evolving into a different variety of myself, Stefanos Tsitsipas,” he said. “Before, I feel like a lot of things were controlled, were dictated by my father, which I didn’t mind at the time because that’s how things operated. I left too much responsibility over there, of taking care of the certain things, and I feel like now it’s my time to really make the calls myself, of who I want to work with, what I want to do, and what I want to achieve.”