If you don’t know about Stefanos Tsitsipas yet, you should. The 21-year-old is one of the brightest young stars on the ATP Tour at the moment and has the potential to be the top player in the sport in a few years’ time.
Allow SBOBET to help you learn more details about this budding tennis superstar’s personal and professional life thus far.
Tsitsipas had a near-death experience as a teen
Stefanos Tsitsipas suffered a harrowing near-death experience as a teenager while swimming in a beach back in 2016.
Tsitsipas and a friend went out for a swim despite stormy conditions. And as the weather worsened, Tsitsipas found himself in serious trouble as he was unable to swim back to shore. He feared he wasn’t going to make it back alive.
“I remember surrendering,” Tsitsipas recalled. “I remember the flashback when time froze. Nothing moved. I couldn’t feel anything. There was a sudden flashback of my entire life.
“I remember drowning. I remember that feeling of dying. For a second I thought I was dead already.”
Fortunately, though, Tsitsipas’ father, Apostolos, was able to swim out in time and got both Stefanos and his friend back to the beach.
Tsitsipas admitted that from that day forward, he saw a different perspective on life and tennis.
Tsitsipas is a prankster
Tsitsipas has quite an interesting sense of humour. He’s a fun follow on social media, where he will share some of his rather weird thoughts.
Tsitsipas also isn’t afraid to pull a prank on his fellow players. Nick Kyrgios found this out first hand as Tsitsipas posted the Australian’s real phone number on Instagram — on Kyrgios’ birthday.
As a result, Kyrgios received a raft of calls from fans, which caused him to reply to Tsitsipas, “You are an absolute idiot everyone stop calling me!!!!!” Although, his comment did have several laughing emojis, so it’s clear he took the prank well.
Kyrgios owns a 2-0 lead over Tsitsipas in terms of their career head-to-heads. And when they get to meet on the court once again, the Australian will no doubt be ready to get his revenge.
Much like Novak Djokovic’s impressions, Tsitsipas’ sense of humour should help endure him to fans, especially as his public profile continues to grow.
Tsitsipas the Greek tennis god
Tsitsipas may only be 21 years of age, but he already owns the title of Greece’s greatest tennis player ever. He became the first player from the country to ever win an ATP tournament, and he did so as a teenager in 2018.
He’s also the highest-ranked Greek player in history after breaking through to the Top 5 last year. Prior to him, no Greek player had even broken into the Top 50 of the ATP rankings.
Tsitsipas realises his unique status in Greek tennis and is proud to bring honour to his country.
“I am very proud of myself and also I believe I made my country proud,” Tsitsipas said.
“I feel proud to represent Greek colours around the world,” added the towering teenager on Instagram on Sunday night. “I am sincerely grateful that every day I have the opportunity to make a fresh start, a new step and contribute to the development of tennis in Greece.”
Youngest ATP Finals winner since 2001
Aside from being a trailblazer for Greek tennis, Tsitsipas has also made some history on Tour. By far his biggest achievement to date was winning the season-ending Nitto ATP Finals in 2019, where he topped Dominic Thiem in the final.
In doing so, Tsitsipas became the youngest winner of ATP Finals since Lleyton Hewitt in 2001 and the sixth-youngest winner in the tournament’s history.
Tsitsipas defeated fellow young up-and-comers Daniil Medvedev and Alexander Zverev during the group stage before knocking out Roger Federer in straight sets in the semi-finals.
Tsitsipas targeting first Grand Slam in 2020
Tsitsipas has already achieved so much in his young career. But he has yet to tick off one major box, which is to win a Grand Slam. After winning the ATP Finals in 2019, Tstisipas made winning a Grand Slam his main goal in 2020.
Tsitsipas’ ATP 2020 results looked promising as he made back-to-back finals prior to the halt in play. However, he suffered a shock third-round exit in this year’s Australian Open. Meanwhile, it remains to be seen if and when the other Grand Slams will be held this year.
But if tennis does return, the ATP 2020 betting odds will no doubt have Tsitsipas as one of the favourites to claim that elusive Grand Slam this year.
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