Stefanos has hit out at the coaching methods of his father Apostolos after crashing out of the Canadian Masters in straight sets.
Tsitsipas, who was seeded eighth in the draw, suffered a surprise defeat to Kei Nishikori, who hadn’t beaten a top 20 player since 2021 until this week. The Greek struggled to maintain consistency throughout the match and was unable to capitalize on a 10-point winning streak he had during the first set. It is the first time he has lost his opening match at a tournament since the Madrid Open in May.
Frustrated with his latest performance, the Greek has unexpectedly criticised his father by saying he was ‘not very smart‘ when it came to handling certain situations as he hints at a potential change of coaches in the future.
“Masters 1000 matches are important, I need a coach who listens to me as a player,” he said.
“My father has not been very smart in handling some situations, in trying to read what is happening on the court.”
Apostolos has been a prominent fixture in Tsitsipas’ team for most of his career. Although he has previously worked with others in the past with the most notable of those being Mark Philippoussis. The two went their own ways last season with Tsitsipas stating that he doesn’t want to work with multiple coaches at the same time.
However, this is by far the most critical Tsitsipas has been of his father when speaking about him publically.
“It has been a poor performance from my father and it’s not the first time,” he continued. “I’m disappointed with him.
“The most important thing is to have good direct feedback, the coach needs to listen. The player is the one holding the racquet.
“I have power here to some degree but it should be a collaborative effort on both sides, for me to develop my tennis.”
The fallout comes less than a month before the US Open where the 25-year-old will be bidding to improve on his second round exit from last year’s event. He has won one title so far this year which was at the Monte Carlo Masters.
