Roland-Garros 2022: Stefanos Tsitsipas, this strange bird

As in politics, the state of grace lasts only a time. For Stefanos Tsitsipas, the honeymoon with the circuit is long over. The refreshing kid of 2019, who beat Roger Federer in Melbourne with panache and personality, has little to do with the man of 2022.”I would like to remind you that I am no longer a NextGen player now, I am an adult now“, he insisted already in October 2020. But among the big ones, the Greek is not unanimous.

And then there was this bathroom break in the middle of the third set, which Alcaraz identified as a destabilizing maneuver bordering on fair play. Finally, between the two, the agreement seems to be in good shape, Tsitsipas having never ceased to praise the mentality of the new phenomenon of the circuit.

This difference, Tsitsipas assumes and claims it. Even if it means regretting a circuit where, despite his status and his experience, he seems to be in difficulty to find his place. “I was an introverted kid and didn’t have many friendshe explained to Noah Rubin in the Behind The Racket podcast. When I started playing on the tour, I thought I could develop friendships, but it turned out to be the opposite. Most players stay alone. I feel like players don’t want to become friends because they think someone is going to take a secret from you to beat you. I guess they’re too serious about it all“.

An omnipresent family clan

This withdrawal into itself has undoubtedly increased in recent months. The clan system of the Tsitsipas family ended up backfiring: the repeated coaching accusations against the Greek were aimed at none other than the ubiquitous Apostolos Tsitsipas. “At some point, his father has to goestimated our columnist Mats Wilander after an Australian Open marked – again – by ghost coaching. Let Stefanos sort things out on his own“.

Still, between the two, it’s a fusional relationship, with its outbursts of anger but also moments of intense complicity. It also comes from the itinerary of a family that bet everything on the talent of the prodigal son. At 12, Stefanos saw his father abandon his job to follow him to tournaments. “I don’t know if he had a choice but he took the riskhe explained in 2018. He left everything to travel with me. So obviously, I measure everything he has done for me, it’s incredible. There aren’t many fathers who would do this for their son.“.

Since then, the staff of Tsitsipas has obviously been reinforced, in particular with the support of Mouratoglou and his training structure. But the father-son relationship remains the core of how Tsitsipas operates, a subject often highlighted in his press conferences where he assumes this particular operation. And, at times, it is indeed the kid in his bubble who reappears on the court, like last January when he did not understand that the match against Benoît Paire was coming to an end.

Burnout and philosophy

“For me, Tsitsipas is a player who lives in the moment, even if he sometimes has his head in the cloudsexplains today Mats Wilander, who had been marked by this sequence in Melbourne. I don’t think he even knows how much time he spends in the bathroom, whether it’s two, five, ten or twelve minutes. It doesn’t seem to cross his mind. Sometimes he doesn’t hear the referee give the score and therefore doesn’t know where he stands, which is remarkable because it says everything about his state of mind. He just thinks about hitting the ball, looking for the right tactic for the next point. Whatever he’s doing, he’s doing it in a connected way right now. In tennis, it is frankly very rare that the score does not dictate your behavior, I would even say that it corresponds to 95% of the time. We play according to that, of course. That’s why he seems to me to be in a different state of mind than Rafa or Roger. For Stefanos, it’s more about playing the point without taking the score into account. And frankly, I really admire this way of doing things.“.

So committed that he sometimes gets lost. For him, defeats hurt more than others. Or in any case longer, as if he remained branded with a hot iron. After his failure in the Roland-Garros final last year, he had experienced a long end to the season, disappointed at the sight of his great start to the year in 2021 and marked by an operation on his elbow. Something to plunge him back into sensations he thought he had forgotten.

“During my first seasons on the circuit, I was very intensehe explained before Indian Wells. I always gave 100%, all the time. And that led to a burnout. […] Burnout is simple. Nothing is going your way anymore. You try very hard, more than before, but no positive results come out of it. You no longer derive any satisfaction from it, you no longer take as much pleasure. The game is no longer the same. That’s why you have to savor every little positive thing, which makes you want to go on the court. Basically, less waiting and more fun.”

“I don’t seek to be liked by everyone”

So, Tsitsipas goes his own way, without everyone following him every time. This season, his cryptic messages on camera have further illustrated this quirky side. “Pink Crab”, “Yellow Submarine”, “Green Parachute”, “Orange Chair”: no one really understood where the Greek was coming from. But his singularity is also expressed there, as on his Twitter account where his messages, mixing politics and philosophy, are widely relayed. Photos, vlog, videos: the creativity of the young Stefanos is also expressed outside the court.

Like the other champions he rubs shoulders with, Tsitsipas is obsessed with tennis, with its results, with the mark it will leave in the history of the game. But, to get there, he chose his path. Certainly a little lonely, certainly a little offbeat but ultimately terribly authentic. His press conferences are often privileged moments when none of the answers seem formatted. Thus advances Stefanos, thus divides Tsitsipas. Under fire from critics at the US Open, the Greek finally summed up what a curious, almost fascinating bird he is: “I don’t pretend that everyone likes me. I don’t seek to be liked by everyone“.