In the tennis world, Stefanos Tsitsipas has established himself as a formidable competitor. He has advanced to multiple Slam finals, placed among the top five, and won numerous Tour-level titles. But judging from what his mother, Julia Apostoli, has said, tennis is much more than just a sport to him.
In a recent interview with the Greek newspaper Proto Thema, Apostoli discussed how tennis enabled her son to get past many challenges.
She recalled Tsitsipas as an extremely quiet and reserved youngster who frequently missed school to train for tennis. She went on to say that because of the way the other students treated Tsitsipas, they couldn’t really be called his friends.
Tsitsipas’ mother talked about it recently and said: “He was a very quiet child and very shy. Because of sports, he missed classes and the children he had in the class, cannot be called friends, because they treated him very badly.”
Apostoli went on to say that some of the students even physically assaulted Tsitsipas. But he wasn’t about to stop there; her son’s struggles had only made him stronger, and tennis provided him with something to look forward to.
She added: “There were two or three kids in his class who sometimes beat him quite a bit. It was not easy for Stefanos then, but he overcame it because he had tennis and his mind was there to go forward. And that helped him a lot.”
Stefanos Tsitsipas in 2024
Now ranked no.12, the Greek played his last match on the 27th of August when he capitulated to world no.78 Thanasi Kokkinakis 7-6(5) 4-6 6-3 7-5 in the 1st round of the U.S. Open (draw).
At the moment, during this season Stefanos has a 36-17 match record. Tsitsipas has won 1 title in Monte-Carlo. The Greek was the runner-up in Barcelona.
Stefanos Tsitsipas will play the world no.660 John Isner in the Round Robin on Sunday at 6:00 pm on CENTER COURT. Their head to head is 6-2 for Tsitsipas.
Tsitsipas conquered 1 title in 2024 in Monte-Carlo. Stefanos was the finalist in Barcelona (Barcelona Open Banc Sabadell).
The Greek won 12 titles in his career: 1 on hard courts, 5 on clay courts, 5 on indoor courts and 1 on grass courts. (See the list of his titles)
Stefanos Tsitsipas |
| Julia Apostoli |
