There is a consensus among tennis experts that Stefanos Tsitsipas (Athens, 27 years old) . They do not refer exactly to his sporting merits, which have led him to be a Grand Slam finalist twice and to become, but to his personality far from clichés, as demonstrated by , published this April 3. It describes a spontaneous Tsitsipas, who changes the meeting place at the last minute to seat the journalist at a table in a luxurious Greek restaurant in Miami. [donde se encontraba disputando el Masters 1000]instead of the controlled environment of a concentration hotel, as any other elite athlete would insist when speaking to the press.
But, once again, Tsitsipas is different and this is evident in many of his statements to The Times. Among them, those that have to do with his relationship with other tennis players. Their disputes on the court in the third round of Wimbledon in 2022 are known, when the Greek was about to be disqualified for throwing a ball into the audience in a particularly tense match, or with Alexander Zverev at the 2021 Cincinnati Open, who to send messages with his father; both collected in the text and which speak of the sometimes difficult character of the player.
Regarding his relationship with other tennis players, beyond the two high-profile confrontations, Tsitsipas spoke in the interview about the disadvantages of being one of the few Greeks at the top of tennis, pointing out how, in his opinion, players establish relationships primarily with fellow countrymen: “If there were five Greeks, I would surely have dinner with them. Believe me, it is very rare to find players who consider themselves friends with someone from another country. That’s why I’m a loner. I don’t have a community. I have , who is the only Greek on the circuit [de la WTA]I spend time with her at tournaments, but that’s it.” In his words: “It’s easy to make friends on the circuit when you’re from France or Spain because there are 10 of you from the same country and you probably grew up playing in the same tournaments.” He says that now he is more willing to socialize: “I’m nice to everyone. I have no reason to be unfriendly or cold. There are players who pass by and don’t greet me, but what are we going to do? I don’t know if I’m bothering them or if they’re just in a bad mood. But it is difficult to make friends among players. It’s as if they were keeping a secret,” he told the British newspaper.
Another complicated relationship for the tennis player is the one he has with his father and current coach Apóstolos, who also enjoys the Greek food feast that his son has decided to share with the journalist from The Times. Together with their mother, a former player on the WTA circuit, they have both raised three tennis players – Tsitsipas has two younger brothers who are also professionals, although with less success – and Apóstolos gave up a stable job as a tennis teacher in Athens to guide his eldest son (in addition to saving his life as a child, ). In 2024, however, the player fired his father as coach after being eliminated in the second round at Wimbledon and the Canadian Open. “It was difficult, but I needed that space. It was a question of survival on the circuit,” he confessed in the interview, in which he also explained how his relationship with his father has evolved: “When I was younger, I just followed him silently. It didn’t bother me at all. But at some point I matured and had my own ideas and opinions. Now I feel like I need to be more proactive. I have matured and I like to take responsibility for my actions.”
After dispensing with Apóstolos, a back injury last season caused his performance to decline. “It hurt me so much that tennis no longer gave me joy (…). It generates a lot of anxiety because not only do you face the match, but your own body is also your enemy. You end up training less to protect it, but the circuit forces you to play non-stop. If you miss tournaments, your ranking drops drastically, so it is a constant struggle. Only those who have great mental strength can withstand that pressure,” the Greek noted about this bad streak, in the midst of which another tense relationship made things more complicated for him. His coach at the time, , publicly described Tsitsipas as the worst prepared player he had ever seen after being eliminated at Wimbledon in 2025, which ended their collaboration in July of that same year: “I didn’t see any sense in it. If it was a way of putting pressure on me to work harder and get my act together, it was definitely not the right tactic. It hurt me a lot,” he said of this episode. Shortly after, the tennis player hired his father again.
A time away from the playing fields – he shortened his season last September – has helped him better value his achievements, as the player explained to The Timeswhere he has also assured that he is not afraid of life beyond tennis: “The good thing is that I have many interests off the court. I don’t think I would be depressed if I stopped playing, because I am a very creative person and I could find other things to do.”
Regarding his relationships, after two years of comings and goings with the Spanish tennis player Paula Badosa (), Stefanos Tsitsipas has been linked in recent months with former tennis player Kristen Thoms, with whom he shared a trip to Namibia in December 2025, as shown in a video published on his YouTube channel.
