Stefanos Tsitsipas recently subtracted a member from his coaching team as former player Mark Philippoussis left.
Philippoussis joined his team last year in order to improve his serve and help him develop his grass game. It worked as Tsitsiaps both became more consistent with his serve as well improving his general level of grass. He won his only grass trophy with Philippoussis as part of the team but their partnership came to a close.
Tistsipas briefly talked about it when it happened but in a talk with Eurosport recently, the Greek went into far more detail about the split and why it happened than in the initial response. The reason though was the same.
I have worked with a few people before who were ex professionals, I have spent time with them, I have been open minded, tried to sync in as much as I could. On the other hand, I am a person that having too many people around me during tournaments can be quite hectic and unbalance my mind a little bit.
Having too much input has proven to be detrimental to more than a few players and while Tsitsipas greatly admired the former player whom he calls friend first, all the various inputs became too much for him. Having fewer people around him allows him to focus better.
Having a few people around me can help me focus on what matters most. I enjoyed very much my partnership with Mark Philippoussis and I am still in close communication with him. He’s not a collaborator or coach to me, he’s a friend and that comes first.
For the time being, Tsitsipas will continue working with his father primarily. Apostolos Tsitsipas has been the coach of his son for over a decade and it's a setup Tsitsipas enjoys a lot. Despite some suggestions that he should try something else, Tsitsipas fully trust his father.
There is no better team in my opinion than my father. I might sound selfish saying that, but he was there, he left his job for me when I was 12 years old, he has been developing every single day, I am extremely happy seeing him trying to learn as much as he can, whether online, or in books, or anything.
As for Philippoussis, he's seeemingly working with another Greek player, Maria Sakkari right now.
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