Biography
Stefanos Tsitsipas is a Greek professional tennis player. He is the youngest player ranked in the top 10 by the Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP) and has a career-high ranking of No. 5 in the world, making him the highest-ranked Greek player in history. Tsitsipas is the reigning champion at the ATP Finals, and is the youngest winner of the year-end championships in eighteen years. He has won four singles titles and reached nine finals on the ATP Tour.
Early life and background
Tsitsipas was born on 12 August 1998 to Apostolos Tsitsipas and Julia Apostoli (née Salnikova) in Athens. His father is Greek and his mother is Russian. Both of his parents are experienced tennis players, and his mother in particular was a world No. 1 junior who had a career-high professional ranking inside the top 200 and represented the Soviet Union in Fed Cup. His parents had been working as tennis instructors at the Astir Palace resort hotel in Vouliagmeni at the time of his birth. They originally met at a WTA tournament in Athens where his mother was competing and his father was a line judge. Stefanos has three younger siblings: two brothers Petros and Pavlos (Paul), and a sister Elisavet who is the youngest. All of his siblings are also tennis players.
Junior Career
Tsitsipas is a former world No. 1 junior. He began playing on the ITF junior circuit in 2013 at the age of 14. He did not play in any high-level Grade A tournaments until the Abierto Juvenil Mexicano in November 2014, but was able to make it all the way to the final of his second career Grade A event at the Orange Bowl a month later. Tsitsipas had entered the tournament ranked outside of the top 100 in the junior rankings. Since 2015, Tsitsipas got his first opportunity to play in the junior Grand Slam tournaments. Moreover, in these four events, a quarterfinal at the Australian Open was his best result. Further, he did not win any singles finals that year, but he did have another runner-up finish at the Orange Bowl, this time losing to Miomir Kecmanović in a third set tiebreak. Likewise, he finished the season as the No. 14 ranked junior in the world.
Professional Career
Tsitsipas began playing low-level ITF Futures events in Greece in 2013 shortly after turning 15, not long after he started competing on the junior tour. Moreover, he qualified for his first event on the ATP Challenger Tour at the Burnie International in early 2015 while still 16 years old, but lost his only main draw match to Benjamin Mitchell. Tsitsipas won his first Futures title later that year and would go on to win a total of eleven such titles, five in singles and six in doubles, through the end since 2016. He also won his first Challenger match near the end of 2015 in Mohammedia in Morocco. Likewise, Tsitsipas returned to Morocco a year later and reached his first two Challenger finals in back-to-back weeks at Mohammedia and Casablanca.
Playing style
Tsitsipas is an aggressive baseliner. He aims to hit powerful groundstroke winners and has a particularly strong forehand using an eastern grip. Similarly, he also has a big serve and can go to the net more often than typical baseline players. One of his weaknesses is to overhit and make unforced errors while trying to hit winners.
Personal life
Tsitsipas studied at an English-language school as a kid. He can speak English, Greek, and Russian. He is a supporter of Greek football team AEK Athens. Moreover, Tsitsipas’s hobbies include vlogging. He hosts his own YouTube channel where he posts videos of his travels
Tsitsipas credits his mother’s twin sister, who was also a professional tennis player in the Soviet Union, for helping with the family’s finances so that he could afford to travel with his father to train and compete during his junior career. His maternal grandfather Sergei Salnikov was an Olympic gold medal-winning member of the Soviet national football team and a former manager of FC Spartak Moscow.
Overview
- Full Name: Stefanos Tsitsipas
- Date of Birth: August 12, 1998
- Age: 21 years
- Birth Place: Athens, Greece
- Height: 1.93 m
- Coach: Apostolos Tsitsipas; Patrick Mouratoglou (2015–)
- Australian Open: SF (since 2019)
- French Open: 4R (since 2019)
- Country (sports): Greece
- Turned pro: 2016
- Plays: Right-handed (one-handed backhand)
- Prize money: $10,425,605
- Net Worth: $2 million
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Reference Net Worth of Stefanos Tsitsipas