The year 2020 of ... Stefanos Tsitsipas
Stefanos Tsitsipas started 2020 with great expectations. Did he meet them?
by Florian Goosmann
last edit: Dec 21, 2020, 10:43 am
At the end of the 2019 season the question arose as to who of the "young and wild ones" could finally replace the "Big 3", that is to say win a Grand Slam tournament, Stefanos Tsitsipas was the top candidate.
With reason: Tsitsipas said goodbye to 2019 with a bang, he had won the ATP Tour Finals in a match of the year against Dominic Thiem . This, so the general tenor, should give him the final boost to win a major tournament in 2020. And thus to create what Thiem, Zverev or Kyrgios had been denied until now.
However, Tsitsipas also had statistics that spoke against him: Grigor Dimitrov won in London in 2017, Alexander Zverev in 2018 - this was not a good omen in terms of Grand Slams.
Tsitsipas challenges Djokovic in Paris
The beginning of 2020 in particular did not go well for Tsitsipas: two defeats in three games at the ATP Cup (against Kyrgios and Shapovalov, victory against Zverev), at the Australian Open, where he had defeated Roger Federer last year, was in round 3 against Milos Raonic conclusion. And just when he seemed to have found his form, with a tournament victory in Marseille and a final in Dubai (defeat against Djokovic), the tour went into the Corona break.
On his return, Raonic again proved to be too tough in the semifinals in Cincinnati, at the US Open "Tsitsi" lost to Borna Coric in five sets in round 3 in a drama game.
On sand? It went better. The Greek reached the final in Hamburg and retaliated at the French Open for HH's defeat against Rublev. In order to show great fighting spirit against Novak Djokovic in the quarter-finals: 3: 6, 2: 6 he had lost the first two rounds, was behind in set 3 with 4: 5 and a break, fended off a match point and forced the surprisingly calm world ranking list First over the distance. To our surprise, however, it was not enough.
The end of the year then turned out to be disappointing: two wins in only six games in Vienna, Paris and London, where this time the group phase was over.
Tsitsipas' year 2020 in numbers
- 29 wins out of 14 losses
- 1 tournament victory (Marseille), 1 Grand Slam semi-final (French Open)
- World number 6