For Greek rising star Stefanos Tsitsipas, his breakthrough start to 2019 wasn’t without its drawbacks.
Last month the 20-year-old became the first player from his country to reach the semi-finals of a major at the Australian Open. Scoring back-to-back wins over Roger Federer and Roberto Bautista Agut. The run triggered a media frenzy back in Greece with Tsitsipas conducting numerous interviews. NBA player Giannis Antetokounmpo has described him as the ‘Greek freak’ of tennis.
Whilst there are benefits to his surge in popularity, being in the limelight hasn’t been easy for the world No.11. Especially when it came to dealing with social media. According to Social Blade, Tsitsipas has attracted 40,000 more Twitter followers since the start of 2019 to bring his current tally to 82,500. Furthermore, he has 460,000 followers on Instagram and 76,833 Facebook likes.
“All the attention was not easy to deal with. I can tell you that. People pay attention now. That’s why I turned off my social media and my phone completely. I was so tired by all these noise on the social media,” The Khaleej Times quoted Tsitsipas as saying.
Elaborating on his decision to take a break from the world of social media, Tsitsipas believes it has helped him mentally. Saying he has become more of an outgoing person since. Following the example sets by players ‘30 years ago.’
“I was just sick and tired of all those messages, all those people talking about me. All the notifications I was receiving, like, I felt my brain blocked. I felt like I couldn’t process all of that information coming to me,” he said.
“I said that it’s enough, I had enough of that. Do it like the old way. Do it like players used to play, 30 years ago, with no phones. I think they were pretty okay,” he smiled.
“Yeah, instead of that I started having nice conversations with my friends who happened to be there, going for some good lunch, dinner with them, discussing about different interesting topics instead of being on my phone.
“I think I was more social that week than ever.”
Besides becoming out of an extrovert, Tsitsipas believes his tennis has benefited. After the Australian Open, he only managed to win two matches at the two following tournaments. Then at the Open 13 in France, he claimed his second ATP title.
“I think it has helped me win the tournament (in Marseille). I will keep being out of social media for a while,” he explained.
Tsitsipas is seeded fifth in Dubai this week. He kicked–off his campaign on Tuesday with a 6-4, 3-6, 6-3, win over Matthew Ebden.
