LONDON — Stefanos Tsitsipas has dismissed his father Apostolos Tsitsipas from his coaching role. There is no going back, the Greek tennis player assures.
“It will take him some time to accept it, as it did the last time we split. Back then I left a small window open. Now I believe he has a great deal to offer others — but to me, I think he’s already given everything he possibly could,” the 27-year-old said at Wimbledon.
“The older I get, the harder I find it to maintain a stable relationship with my father in a coaching context. I feel we’ve reached a point where I’m looking for something completely different. I could feel it in the day-to-day energy of our work together,” the finalist at Roland Garros 2019 and the 2021 Australian Open told.
Tsitsipas, former world No. 3 and currently ranked 88th, realised that working with Apostolos was keeping him inside his comfort zone: “Over this last stretch, I felt that having my father by my side gave me a sense of comfort, but that wasn’t the solution I needed to take the next steps and do something different in my career.”
“Of course I love him very much and want the best for him, but right now I’m thinking about myself and what is best for me,” he added.