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.
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Could they really not work together again? Tsitsipas is unambiguous: “It’s difficult because we’ve spent many years together on tour, but speaking about it now, I believe we won’t work together again in the future. I want to start making my own decisions and deciding things for myself. I have other things in mind that I don’t think align with the way we’ve been working together lately.”
“It wouldn’t be easy for any parent to accept, but especially for him. It’s not easy for any parent to have worked with their son for so many years and then suddenly come to a full stop,” Tsitsipas said in London, convinced that Apostolos’s place is alongside his brothers Petros and Pavlos, and in junior tennis.
Tsitsipas is at the All England Club working with Frenchman Thomas Perrin, a member of Patrick Mouratoglou’s academy team. “Thomas has been in high performance for many years and has worked with other athletes. I’ll have Patrick’s oversight as well — he’ll be at certain tournaments whenever he can. His schedule is very full. That’s the solution through the end of the year.”
Tsitsipas is open to continue bajo las órdenes de Perrin y Moratoglou en 2027. El griego debutará en Wimbledon 2026 este lunes frente al francés Hugo Gaston.
