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Stefanos Tsitsipas claims biggest title yet to crown breakthrough year


Moments after Stefanos Tsitsipas contested the biggest match of his career at the Australian Open in January he arrived for his press conference and sat demoralised in his chair. He was broken. He had come all the way to his first major semi-final, scuppering his hero Roger Federer along the way, only to be dismantled 6-2, 6-4, 6-0 by Rafael Nadal. He seemed lost and he departed the press conference room wondering if he would ever beat Nadal: “I don’t want to lose to Rafa 10 times,” he sighed.

On Sunday the Greek produced an extraordinary performance, recovering from a set down to defeat Dominic Thiem 6-7 (6), 6-2, 7-6 (4) and win the ATP Finals. It is the biggest title of his career and his third of the year, a sum of his growth and maturity over the course of a rollercoaster of a breakthrough year.

Tsitsipas started the season by speaking into existence the four things he wished to achieve: reach the top 10, contest a grand slam semi-final, qualify for the ATP Finals and win a Masters 1000. So good has his season been that he has passed each milestone he set out to achieve and overshot the final one, winning an even bigger title on Sunday.

However, his season has also been a complicated and at times brutal learning curve. After piling on the tournaments and barely taking a breath, by the middle of the year he was burnt out from the endless grind of the tour. When he lost in the first round of Wimbledon he locked himself in his hotel room and read books for days. Then after his loss in the first round of the US Open, just three months ago, he admitted he was struggling to cope with the rigid routines essential to success in professional tennis

“I feel like I’m doing the same thing over and over again and my brain can’t really take it any more,” he said. “I don’t feel inspired. I play out on the court and I don’t feel like I’m chasing something.”

Tsitsipas plays a backhand in his final match against Dominic Thiem



Tsitsipas plays a backhand in his final match against Dominic Thiem Photograph: Julian Finney/Getty Images

He eventually decided to turn it round by no longer taking defeats as severely he did against Nadal or after his US Open exit. Even the best players in the world lose at the end of most weeks and so he has learnt not to be quite as excitable in victory so that he is no longer as devastated in defeat: “I have dealt the last couple of months to face losses with a more positive way,” he said. “I don’t get so much frustrated with myself and beaten up. That’s how we’d call it. I deal with them a little bit better and I see the positive side of it.”

Tsitsipas’ changed perspective was reflected in Sunday night’s marvellous final. After outlasting Nadal, Novak Djokovic and Federer to reach the final, both players felt the magnitude of the moment and together they produced an remarkable first set of tennis. They served bombs under pressure, they moved forward to finish points with complex volleys and the set was decided by a single shanked backhand from the Greek at 6-6 in the tiebreak.

Tsitsipas had no reason to be upset after playing so well and so he was not. He showed his maturity through his resilience, turning round the match with perhaps the single greatest set of his career. By the end of the second set he had struck 10 winners to just one unforced error. After Thiem broke him back in the third set, he battled back and took the biggest title of his career in a tight, nervous tiebreak.

Perhaps the most notable moment of Tsitsipas’ week came in the match that mattered least. The Greek had already qualified on Friday when he faced Nadal in the third match of the group stages and a victory offered him nothing. Nadal played at the highest level in the final two sets but Tsitsipas found the inspiration to hold off the world No 1 right until the very end.

After nearly three hours he finally fell. But in that meaningless as much as Sunday night’s final that meant everything, the 21-year-old showed that his competitiveness, his fight and the endless ambition that drives every forehand he strikes are all innate. This is only the beginning and there will surely be many greater victories to come.



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