A new man for the new season?
Beginning the year outside the Top 10 of the PIF ATP Rankings for the first time in six years, Stefanos Tsitsipas is looking for a seachange on and off the court to brighten his outlook for the coming season.
“I'm looking kind of reinventing myself,” said Tsitsipas, who failed to qualify for the Nitto ATP Finals last year for the first time in six seasons.
“I felt like I've been stuck in a pattern over the last few months. I haven't been able to kind of unlock the pattern or get out of it."
The World No. 11 is leading Team Greece at the United Cup in Perth alongside WTA star Maria Sakkari, who also finds herself outside the Top 10 after an extended injury layoff.
“I'm looking for a fresh, new 2025,” he said. “That doesn't mean to suddenly just start winning everything… it's just to see a trajectory of constant improvement and improving in all fields in my career, but also in my outside life.
“I want to have stability in my life. Last year was a little bit up and down in terms of results, in terms of feelings outside of the court and on court. So I'm just hoping 2025 brings stability, a lot of health.”
Australia has been a consistent memory maker for Tsitsipas, particularly the Australian Open, where he has reached the semi-finals or better four of the past six years. He rates his 2023 final defeat to Novak Djokovic at Melbourne Park as a career highlight.
“It certainly is my best memory, let's say, on court ever,” he said. “Even though I lost that final, it was such a big, important moment in my career because I was suddenly faced with perhaps a potential Grand Slam win and my all-time childhood dream, which was to finish No. 1 in the world. Both were right in front of me.
“It's probably the only time in my life that I felt like everything is really under my control and I just need to focus 100 per cent. Unfortunately, didn't happen. But the importance of it mesmerised me and made me kind of emotional that I'm getting so close to what I was dreaming for my entire life.”
Tsitsipas’ teammate in Perth, Sakkari, starts the season in unfamiliar territory outside the Top 30. She has not played since retiring in the first round of the US Open with a shoulder injury. The World No. 32 hopes that the United Cup will mark a happy return to the Tour.
“I basically didn't have an off-season,” Sakkari said. “I've been injured for the last five months. I tried to play the US Open, but it wasn't successful. I basically got injured in the Olympics. After that I didn't get any practise until New York.
“I didn't have a regular off-season. It was probably a rehab season, I would say. But it was tough in a way, but at the same time it was nice to have downtime and just be home for longer than two weeks and just do different stuff other than tennis: see my friends for more than two hours a week, just spend time with my family, just be a normal person for a couple of months.
“Seeing the positives out of that negative thing that's called an injury, it was a great lesson. I had a good time being out of the tour.”
