The beautiful story of the Greek Sakellaridis family in tennis

The Greek Sakellaridis family is a clear example of a family life devoted to tennis in the lower categories of the circuit.

They are three brothers and a sister who, together with their father and mother, travel with their van through Europe to the tournaments. This year they have decided to undertake a tour of Spain and have participated in several UTR events in Barcelona and in the ITF of Nules, Benicarló, Torelló, Madrid, Girona and Platja d’Aro. Taking advantage of their participation in the UTR of Barcelona we have been able to talk with Stefanos and Michalis.

Stefanos told us that curiously his parents had never played tennis but that his sister decided to start playing tennis, from then on Michalis also joined that sport and from seeing it so much he and Dimitris decided to join in on the whole. By making tennis a familiar mode they try to square the calendars as much as possible so that they can all travel together. In the case of the brothers it is much easier but with the sister they have it more complicated because the male and female calendars are not the same.

They regularly compete on dates ITF at Antalya, relatively close to home and where tournaments of this category are held almost every week of the year. But in this 2021 they decided to have new experiences as a family together and that is why they made this route in a van through Spanish lands.

A family dream

At 17 years old Stefanos He is the one who points out the best ways and we already have him very close to accessing the world’s top 1000, the goal that he has set himself for the next few months. At ITF Torelló he reached the quarterfinals, here at UTR Barcelona he also reached that same round and has already passed several previous phases.

The eldest of the brothers, Michalis He is also competing in Barcelona, ​​but in his case the level is much lower than that of his brother and he only has 1 point in the ATP ranking. Of course, at the doubles level it has a semifinals in the M15 from Madrid as best performance precisely with Stefanos.

The little one of the Sakellaridis, DimitrisIt is undoubtedly the lowest level of all and if he competes in some previous phases it is because he accompanies his brothers to tournaments and if there is any free place in the tables he signs up for fun.

Who stands out above all in this family is the sister. Sappho has already been proclaimed UTR Barcelona champion in three editions And at the WTA level, his 2021 has also been very positive, which has left him on the verge of accessing the top 500. At 18 years old he points out very good manners and it seems that it will be the Sakellaridis that goes further and can lead everyone to enjoy of much higher level tournaments. Until then they will continue to travel thousands of kilometers through Europe in family outing mode, enjoying their smiles in each training session and cheering themselves up on the slopes.