122 Facts About Stefanos Tsitsipas

1.

Stefanos Tsitsipas is a Greek professional tennis player.

2.

Stefanos Tsitsipas has been ranked as high as world No 3 by the Association of Tennis Professionals, which he first achieved on 9 August 2021, making him the highest-ranked Greek player in history alongside Maria Sakkari.

3.

Stefanos Tsitsipas has won nine ATP singles titles and has contested two major finals at the 2021 French Open and 2023 Australian Open, finishing runner-up to Novak Djokovic both times.

4.

Stefanos Tsitsipas has a career-high doubles ranking of No 64, achieved on 29 August 2022.

5.

Stefanos Tsitsipas became the third Greek player, and first Greek male in the Open Era, to win a junior Grand Slam title with a victory in the 2016 Wimbledon boys' doubles event.

6.

Stefanos Tsitsipas won his first match on the ATP Tour in late 2017 and quickly ascended the ATP rankings the following year.

7.

Stefanos Tsitsipas reached three tour-level finals in 2018 and won his first title at the Stockholm Open.

8.

Since culminating that season with an exhibition title at the Next Gen ATP Finals, Stefanos Tsitsipas has become a fixture in the world's top 10.

9.

Stefanos Tsitsipas won his first Masters 1000 event at the 2021 Monte-Carlo Masters, and defended his title in 2022.

10.

Stefanos Tsitsipas was named the Greek Male Athlete of the Year for 2019.

11.

Stefanos Tsitsipas was born on 12 August 1998 to Apostolos Stefanos Tsitsipas and Julia Apostoli in Athens.

12.

Stefanos Tsitsipas's father is Greek and he was born in Proastio, Karditsa and his mother is Russian.

13.

Stefanos Tsitsipas's maternal grandfather, Sergei Salnikov, was a Soviet footballer who played for Zenit Leningrad, Spartak Moscow and Dynamo Moscow.

14.

Stefanos Tsitsipas's parents had been working as tennis instructors at the Astir Palace resort hotel in Vouliagmeni at the time of his birth.

15.

Stefanos Tsitsipas has three younger siblings: two brothers Petros and Pavlos, and a sister Elisavet who is the youngest.

16.

Stefanos Tsitsipas began taking lessons at Tennis Club Glyfada near Athens at the age of six, and has continued to train there.

17.

Stefanos Tsitsipas's father has always served as his primary coach, and he formally studied tennis coaching at the University of Athens to help train his children.

18.

In 2015, Stefanos Tsitsipas began training at the Patrick Mouratoglou Academy, splitting time between France and Greece during this period.

19.

Stefanos Tsitsipas began playing on the ITF Junior Circuit in 2013 at the age of 14.

20.

Stefanos Tsitsipas 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.

21.

Stefanos Tsitsipas had entered the tournament ranked outside of the top 100 in the junior rankings.

22.

In 2015, Stefanos Tsitsipas got his first opportunity to play in the junior Grand Slam tournaments.

23.

Stefanos Tsitsipas 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 Kecmanovic in a third set tiebreak.

24.

Stefanos Tsitsipas finished the season as the No 14 ranked junior in the world.

25.

In 2016, Stefanos Tsitsipas had a breakout year, reaching at least the quarterfinals of all eight tournaments that he played, including all four Grand Slams.

26.

Stefanos Tsitsipas became the top-ranked junior in the world after winning his first Grade A title at the Trofeo Bonfiglio.

27.

Stefanos Tsitsipas won the European Junior Championships later in the year.

28.

Stefanos Tsitsipas became the first male Greek to win a junior Grand Slam in the Open Era, and the second overall after Nicky Kalogeropoulos won both the French Open and Wimbledon in 1963.

29.

Besides his doubles triumph, Stefanos Tsitsipas had his two best finishes in the Grand Slam singles events that year, making the semifinals of both Wimbledon and the US Open.

30.

Stefanos Tsitsipas ended the year as the No 2 ranked junior in the world, behind only Kecmanovic who had played several more events.

31.

Stefanos 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.

32.

Stefanos 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 of 2016.

33.

Stefanos Tsitsipas won his first Challenger match near the end of 2015 in Mohammedia in Morocco.

34.

Stefanos Tsitsipas returned to Morocco a year later and reached his first two Challenger finals in back-to-back weeks at Mohammedia and Casablanca.

35.

Towards the end of that month, Stefanos Tsitsipas was granted a qualifying wild card into the Swiss Indoors in Basel, his first ATP Tour appearance.

36.

Stefanos Tsitsipas defeated Rajeev Ram in the opening round, but was unable to qualify after a loss to Robin Haase.

37.

Stefanos Tsitsipas played in his first ATP main draw at the 2017 Rotterdam Open, where he lost his debut match to the eventual champion Jo-Wilfried Tsonga.

38.

Stefanos Tsitsipas made his Grand Slam debut later that year as a qualifier at the French Open, but lost to Ivo Karlovic in his first match.

39.

At the European Open in Belgium the following week, Stefanos Tsitsipas reached his first ATP semifinal as a qualifier.

40.

Stefanos Tsitsipas reached a high enough ranking to be named an alternate for the Next Gen ATP Finals.

41.

Stefanos Tsitsipas closed out the season with another Challenger final, this time in Brest.

42.

Stefanos Tsitsipas started the year at the Qatar Open where he lost in the quarterfinals to world No 5 Dominic Thiem, again as a qualifier.

43.

Stefanos Tsitsipas's performance gained national attention in Greece, where tennis is not a widely popular sport.

44.

Stefanos Tsitsipas picked up a third career top ten victory over No 8 Kevin Anderson.

45.

Stefanos Tsitsipas closed out the clay court season by winning his first career Grand Slam match at the French Open against Carlos Taberner before losing to Thiem, the eventual runner-up.

46.

Stefanos Tsitsipas played the next Grand Slam at Wimbledon seeded for first time at No 31.

47.

Stefanos Tsitsipas took advantage of the seed and produced his best result at a major tournament at the time, a fourth round loss to No 10 John Isner.

48.

Stefanos Tsitsipas had his second big breakthrough of the year in the lead up to the US Open.

49.

Stefanos Tsitsipas saved match points in the latter two matches.

50.

Stefanos Tsitsipas lost the final to Nadal on his 20th birthday in a closer match than their first encounter.

51.

At the US Open, Stefanos Tsitsipas made his main draw debut, but was upset in the second round by fellow Next Gen player Daniil Medvedev.

52.

Stefanos Tsitsipas cited fatigue as a factor in the loss and proceeded to exit before the quarterfinals at three of his next four tournaments as well.

53.

However, Stefanos Tsitsipas was able to recover at the Stockholm Open.

54.

Stefanos Tsitsipas closed out his season at the Next Gen ATP Finals.

55.

Stefanos Tsitsipas was the top seed at the event and was drawn with Frances Tiafoe, Hubert Hurkacz, and Jaume Munar.

56.

Stefanos Tsitsipas swept his group and defeated Andrey Rublev to advance to the final against second seed Alex de Minaur.

57.

Stefanos Tsitsipas defeated de Minaur in four sets to win the Next Gen Finals.

58.

Stefanos Tsitsipas began the season at the Hopman Cup alongside Maria Sakkari, making them the first team to represent Greece at the event in 17 years.

59.

At the 2019 Australian Open, Stefanos Tsitsipas reached his first major semifinal, despite having won just five Grand Slam singles matches in total the previous year.

60.

Stefanos Tsitsipas won his second career title at the Open 13 in Marseille over Mikhail Kukushkin before finishing runner-up to Federer at the Dubai Tennis Championships.

61.

Stefanos Tsitsipas closed out the early year hard court season with a career-best result in doubles, finishing runner-up to the Bryan brothers at the Miami Open with Wesley Koolhof.

62.

Stefanos Tsitsipas won his first career clay court title a month later at the Estoril Open after defeating Pablo Cuevas in the final.

63.

Nonetheless, Stefanos Tsitsipas rose to No 6 in the world after this series of tournaments.

64.

Stefanos Tsitsipas defeated Zverev again at the China Open en route to finishing runner-up to No 5 Dominic Thiem.

65.

Stefanos Tsitsipas then made two semifinals at the Shanghai Masters and the Swiss Indoors, losing to other top five players again in No 4 Daniil Medvedev and No 3 Roger Federer.

66.

Stefanos Tsitsipas defeated both Medvedev and Zverev to advance to the knockout stages after two matches.

67.

Stefanos Tsitsipas won the championship in a tight match that ended in a third set tiebreak to become the youngest winner of the year-end championship since Lleyton Hewitt in 2001.

68.

Stefanos Tsitsipas finished the season at No 6 in the world.

69.

Stefanos Tsitsipas entered the 2020 Australian Open seeded 6th in the men's bracket, but failed to repeat his success of 2019, losing in the 3rd round to Milos Raonic.

70.

Stefanos Tsitsipas then entered the ABN AMRO World Tennis Tournament seeded 2nd, but failed to live up to his seed as he lost in the round of 16 to Aljaz Bedene.

71.

Stefanos Tsitsipas recovered quickly to defend his title at the Open 13 tournament, winning his 5th ATP title, recording in the process 4 wins in a row without dropping a set, and defeating Felix Auger-Aliassime in the final.

72.

Stefanos Tsitsipas recorded 4 wins in a row, reaching the final for the second successive year, where he lost in straight sets to the World No 1.

73.

Stefanos Tsitsipas beat Albert Ramos Vinolas and Maxime Cressy without dropping a set before losing to Borna Coric in the third round despite having six match points and being a break up in the 5th set.

74.

Stefanos Tsitsipas was unable to defend his 2019 ATP Finals title.

75.

Stefanos Tsitsipas started his 2021 Australian Open campaign with a comfortable straight sets win over Gilles Simon, before surviving a five set thriller with Thanasi Kokkinakis.

76.

Stefanos Tsitsipas then beat Mikael Ymer in straight sets before being given a walkover by an injured Matteo Berrettini.

77.

Stefanos Tsitsipas eventually lost in the semifinals to Daniil Medvedev.

78.

In Rotterdam, Stefanos Tsitsipas lost in the semifinals to the eventual champion Andrey Rublev.

79.

In doing so, Stefanos Tsitsipas became the first Greek player in history to win a Masters title.

80.

In May, Stefanos Tsitsipas defeated Cameron Norrie in straight sets to win the 2021 Lyon Open and his seventh career title.

81.

At the French Open, Stefanos Tsitsipas beat Pablo Carreno Busta and Daniil Medvedev to reach his second consecutive French Open semifinal and third consecutive Grand Slam semifinal.

82.

Stefanos Tsitsipas beat Alexander Zverev in five sets to become the first Greek player in history to reach a major final.

83.

Stefanos Tsitsipas achieved a career-high ranking of World No 4 by advancing to the championship match.

84.

Stefanos Tsitsipas suffered an early exit at Wimbledon, losing to Frances Tiafoe in the first round.

85.

Stefanos Tsitsipas took his revenge for the Wimbledon loss by defeating Tiafoe in the second round at the 2020 Olympics.

86.

Stefanos Tsitsipas became the first Greek man to win a singles match at the Olympic Games with his first round win over Phillip Kohlschreiber since Augustos Zerlandis in 1924.

87.

Stefanos Tsitsipas lost in the third round to Ugo Humbert of France in three sets.

88.

At the US Open, Stefanos Tsitsipas defeated Andy Murray in 5 sets and Adrian Mannarino in 4 sets to reach the third round.

89.

At the ATP Finals, Stefanos Tsitsipas lost in straight sets to Andrey Rublev before withdrawing from the tournament due to an elbow injury.

90.

Murray complained after the second toilet break, claiming that Stefanos Tsitsipas's breaks are too long and change the momentum of the game.

91.

Stefanos Tsitsipas claimed to have "lost all respect" for Tsitsipas, and later, after losing the match, wrote on Twitter, claiming that it takes Tsitsipas twice as long to go to the toilet as it takes Jeff Bezos to fly into space.

92.

In doubles, Stefanos has partnered with his brother Petros Tsitsipas in seven tournaments where they have received six wildcards in doubles and they have lost five times out of seven in the first round since the beginning of the season 2021.

93.

The Stefanos Tsitsipas brothers received yet again their second Grand Slam and seventh wildcard for the year at the 2021 Wimbledon Championships.

94.

Stefanos and Petros Tsitsipas received wildcards, their fourteenth and fifteenth as a team, for the 2023 Monte-Carlo Masters and the 2023 Mutua Madrid Open.

95.

At the 2022 Australian Open, Stefanos Tsitsipas reached the semifinals for the third time, where he faced Daniil Medvedev in a rematch of the previous year's semifinal.

96.

Stefanos Tsitsipas lost in four sets, and received a coaching violation when his father Apostolos was caught coaching in Greek.

97.

Stefanos Tsitsipas successfully defended his Monte-Carlo Masters title against Spaniard Alejandro Davidovich Fokina in two sets to capture his second ATP Masters 1000 title.

98.

At the 2022 Wimbledon Championship, Stefanos Tsitsipas lost in the third round to Nick Kyrgios in four sets.

99.

Stefanos Tsitsipas reached his third Masters 1000 final of the season but lost to the in-form and lowest ranked champion in Masters history Croatian Borna Coric.

100.

Stefanos Tsitsipas was defeated by qualifier Daniel Elahi Galan in four sets in the first round, although Tsitsipas saved eight match points.

101.

Stefanos Tsitsipas lost in the second round in Vienna again to Borna Coric.

102.

Stefanos Tsitsipas recorded his 60th win for 2022 defeating Tommy Paul in the quarterfinals of the 2022 Rolex Paris Masters to reach his fifth Masters semifinal for the season.

103.

Stefanos Tsitsipas ended the year with a tournament win, the 2022 Mubadala World Tennis Championship.

104.

Stefanos Tsitsipas recorded his 250th win at the 2023 United Cup defeating Grigor Dimitrov.

105.

At the 2023 Australian Open, Stefanos Tsitsipas defeated Quentin Halys, Rinky Hijikata, Tallon Griekspoor, Jannik Sinner, Jiri Lehecka, and Karen Khachanov on his way to the final.

106.

In both finals, Stefanos Tsitsipas lost to Novak Djokovic, who tied Rafael Nadal's record of 22 Grand Slam titles.

107.

Stefanos Tsitsipas returned to the Sunshine Double in the United States.

108.

Stefanos Tsitsipas started his clay-court campaign at the 2023 Monte-Carlo Masters, where he was the two-time defending champion.

109.

Stefanos Tsitsipas recorded 12 consecutive wins in the principality after defeating Benjamin Bonzi and Nicolas Jarry, but was ultimately defeated by American Taylor Fritz in straight sets in the quarterfinals.

110.

Stefanos Tsitsipas lost to the top seed Carlos Alcaraz in the championship match in straight sets.

111.

Stefanos Tsitsipas is an aggressive baseliner capable of an all-court player style as well, very similar to Roger Federer.

112.

Stefanos Tsitsipas aims to hit powerful groundstroke winners and has a particularly strong forehand using an Eastern grip.

113.

Stefanos Tsitsipas's forehand is particularly useful in finishing points off of the first serve, as combined with his big serve, he uses his high topspin rate to pull opponents off the court for winners, or go to the net more often than typical baseline players.

114.

Stefanos Tsitsipas struggles returning serve against players with strong kick serves on the backhand side, a weakness he has worked to improve through usage of blocked and slice returns on his backhand.

115.

Stefanos Tsitsipas's favourite shot is his one-handed backhand, a rarity in modern tennis.

116.

Stefanos Tsitsipas experimented with both one-handed and two-handed backhands in his youth, but chose to go with the former at around eight years old because both of his parents as well as his idol Roger Federer all use a one-handed backhand, and because it felt more natural.

117.

Stefanos Tsitsipas excels on clay, having grown up playing on that surface in Greece.

118.

Stefanos Tsitsipas has the competitive nature of Andy Murray, but he has a calmness which reminds me of Roger Federer.

119.

Stefanos Tsitsipas is a supporter of Greek football club AEK Athens.

120.

Stefanos Tsitsipas was in a relationship with New York-based research analyst Theodora Petalas from 2019 to 2022 [1].

121.

Stefanos Tsitsipas credits his mother's twin sister, who was a professional tennis player in the Soviet Union, with helping the family's finances so that he could afford to travel with his father to train and compete during his junior career.

122.

Stefanos Tsitsipas's 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.