ATP-Finals champ Stefanos Tsitsipas: Beach boy with concentration and consistency
Stefanos Tsitsipas wiped away the small crisis in the summer with his strong finish of the season. In 2020 he wants to attack at the Grand Slam tournaments.
by Jörg Allmeroth
last edit: Nov 18, 2019, 01:10 pm
It was already late on his biggest tennis day, after the usual marathon through pressrooms and international television studios, when Stefanos Tsitsipas was still not really smart. The dramatic final match against the long-term indomitable Austrian Dominic Thiem, the nerve-racking tiebreak thriller in the final set, finally the World Cup triumph in London's O2 arena with the very last three points won for the wafer-thin 6: 7 (6: 8), 6: 3 , 7: 6 (7: 4) -success, "unbelievable" is the whole, "not of this world," Tsitsipas said: "I know, frankly, not at all how I should understand all this. It's too much of a good thing. "
But he was, no question, no doubt, he was the deserved, worthy world champion of tennis pros. The man who put the last big exclamation point in a spectacular season. The youngest champion since Lleyton Hewitt in 2001, at just 21 years old. And this was Stefanos Tsitsipas, "Stefanos, the Great", as he called the sports portal at home in Greece: A career sprinter who set the film- rip richer Millionaire's saga in his own way - namely from the World Cup sparring partner of the superstars still in the Year 2016 until the title hero on November 17, 2019, at his tournament debut. By the way, he also became junior world champion in this parcorreque, 12 months ago in Milan, at the so-called Next Gen Final of the players' union ATP.
And more should come now, after the "World Cup fairy tale", very soon, when it comes to Tsitsipas: "I feel that I'm very close to a Grand Slam victory," he said on Sunday. After a title match in which one first had the feeling that nobody misses in the here and now the big old gentlemen of the branch, the Federers, Nadals and Djokovics.
Tsitsipas to Wimbledon: "Tennis was horror for me"
The final had turned Tsitsipas almost as much as the whole year 2019, a year in which there were also very different, much darker moments. Little spoke in the middle of the season that he of all people could have the powerful final word in world tennis. Tsitsipas had even plunged into a serious performance and crisis of meaning, after his first-round finish in Wimbledon against the Brazilian Thomas Fabbiano, the Greeks barricaded themselves even for days in a hotel room, "Tennis has suddenly become a horror for me," said Tsitsipas.
The Tour of Disappointment continued, defeats were defeats. Then came the US Open - and with them a black-out at the next kick-off against the Russian Andrej Rublev. Tsitsipas got into a dispute with a French umpire, calling the referee a "spinner." He was "scared" at himself, Tsitsipas said, "I knew I had to do something."
But Tsitsipas did not resort to the commercial tools, he dismissed no one from his team, he also did not tinker with punches or tactics. Instead, he radically limited his Internet activity, left some social media portals, and became scarce and rarer in the virtual public. "It just helped me find inner peace," says Tsitsipas, "you go crazy when you read something on the internet every few minutes. Or drop messages yourself. "
All the more visible was the 21-year-old who returned to work in the fall. Almost always he reached the last tournament rounds, and in Shanghai he also beat world ranking leader Djokovic. The turnaround also gave him the necessary self-confidence, the strong ego, to take on in London with the best of the best. The masterpiece before the jump to the world champion throne was the semi-final victory over Federer, in which he fought with cold weather and passion at the same eleven of twelve break chances of the maestro.
"I never get scared in a match"
Tsitsipas often seems a bit scared, distracted, even crazy. Some of his colleagues also think he is vile, old-fashioned and shrill, behind his back was often blasphemed "Professor Tsitsi" or the "Tennis Jesus". But for many, the fun has passed on the Center Court: Because Tsitsipas may also spread an aura of casual hippie, he may sometimes appear like the eternal "Beach Boy" with tanned skin and the waving, wild curls - in the duels on the square he can be hard on steel, if he combines his concentration and consequence. Tsitsipas attributes his iron-scale work attitude to the harsh influence of mother Julia, a former top 200 player with Russian roots: "She put the emphasis early on, so I play with discipline and brains."
He was also marked by an experience five years ago - at that very moment his father rescued him from drowning in the sea off Crete: "That gave me a certain fearlessness. Fear, real fear, I never have in a match. "
At the height of his tennis skills, Tsitsipas shines as the most complete player of those young savages aiming for a change of guard at the top. The "Tennis Apollo" (Daily Mail) combines power with precision, he can score points in tiresome baseline sources as well as sudden network attacks. Tennis impresario Patrick Mouratoglou calls him a "cool, creative, strategic type", and Tsitsipas, his southern French academy, has found a second home. Tsitsipas, says Mouratoglou, "almost always has the right solution to a problem."
When Tsitsipas finished the penultimate round of the season at the Australian Open in January last year, the newcomer turned out to be a realist: "The players in front who are incredibly persistent, they do not just go away like that." Well, after an adventurous apprenticeship rushing happy ending, Tsitsipas finds it time to think bigger and bolder: "It would be nice to get to the top when the Big Three are still playing. And not if they've already stopped. "