Stefanos Tsitsipas is about to play the most important match of his young career in London as he will be opposed to Dominic Thiem for the prestigious title at the ATP Finals. Even if people tend to see only the actual success of a tennis player, Tsitsipas has always stated that the road to success was not very easy.

Fortunately, the Greek sensation had always the luxury to rely on the full support of his father Apostolos not only from a financial and moral point of view but also as a coach.

I had no tennis background

Talking to the ATPTour.com, Apostolos  has “only” a sports science major at the University of Athens to reveal:

“It was strange because nobody from my background was involved in tennis. But I chose tennis; I don’t know why. Actually, that’s a good question.”

Apostolos had the great help of his wife Yulia that used to be a top200 player. He started to teach tennis to Stefanos when he was 3, and he became his full-time coach when his son turned 12.

Talking about his coaching style, Apostolos commented: “With Stefanos, even though I studied so much, I just feel that I know very few things. You need to always be open-minded and ready to learn. Stefanos gave me such a chance to learn. I think he was the best university for me.”

Of course, also Stefanos is extremely pleased with having his father around to comment: “It’s a big honour to have him next to me by my side. I love him. He loves me. We have been together since the age of 12, traveling together. I appreciate that.”

The Mouratoglou Academy

Eventually, a great move for Stefanos was to be helped by Serena Williams’ coach Patrick Mouratogluo. The Frenchman understood Stefanos’ talent from the outset to have him training at his academy since he was 16. Once again, Patrick was right in picking his talents.

Tsitsipas in London, ranking, and results in 2019

Ranked no.6, Tsitsipas has a 52-25 win-loss record in 2019. The Greek is competing in London where he defeated Daniil Medvedev 7-65 6-4, Alexander Zverev 6-3 6-2 and Roger Federer 6-3 6-4.

Tsitsipas will take on Thiem in the final. The head to head is 4-2 for Thiem.

The last time that they competed against each other, Thiem won 3-6 6-4 6-1 in the final in Beijing on the 06th October 2019.

Stefanos clinched 2 titles in 2019 in Marseille and in Estoril. Tsitsipas was the finalist in Dubai, in Madrid and in Beijing.